Stellaris' Director Defends Ethical Use of AI in Latest DLC
"Ethical use of AI technology" makes me ponder.
Stellaris, a highly acclaimed science fiction space strategy game, recently released its latest DLC, Stellaris: The Machine Age, on May 7th. However, its use of AI-generated content, as described by the developers, has sparked dissatisfaction among players:
"We employ generative AI technologies during the creation of some assets. Typically this involves the ideation of content and visual reference material. These elements represent a minor component of the overall development. AI has been used to generate voices for an AI antagonist and a player advisor."
Image Credit: Paradox Development Studio, Stellaris: The Machine Age
Stephen 'Eladrin' Muray, the director of Stellaris at Paradox, addressed player discussions and concerns on the game’s subreddit, as reported by Rock Paper Shotgun. He asserted that the studio's use of AI-generated assets is “ethical".
"Ethical use of AI technology is very important to us - we're pretty good at exploring dystopian sci-fi and don't want to end up there ourselves,” wrote Muray.
“We didn't use it for concept art in The Machine Age - we've got a couple of awesome concept artists on staff for that. (You'll get to see more of their art in next week's dev diary.) There may be a couple of AI-generated pieces on the visdev exploration/mood board, but they'd be among a bunch of other inspirational thematic pictures.”
Image Credit: Paradox Development Studio, Stellaris: The Machine Age
Despite Stellaris having a very positive overall score of 87 from over 115k reviews on Steam, recent reviews have been 'mixed'. Upon further analysis, the use of AI appears to be a significant factor in the recent negative feedback.
Muray added that a forthcoming developer diary would provide more information on the use of AI-generated voices. So, let's stay tuned.
