The Witcher 3 Director Thinks That AI Can Help Developers But Not Replace Them
"I don't feel that games created with only AI will have soul."
CD PROJEKT RED
The issue of AI use in video games is quite controversial, with a lot of publishers and studio heads trying to cut costs by replacing people with the tech. But can AI actually be as good as a human?
Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, former director of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077 and now CEO and game director of Rebel Wolves, doesn't think so. In an interview with Eurogamer, he shared that while the studio uses AI for some tasks, the majority of the work is done by people.
"We used AI for voices during the testing period of time before the recordings," he said, "because my experience from the previous projects was that you [understand] a lot more when you hear the voices, and we wanted to have it as soon as possible to test the game and iterate on it. And then when we decided the story was great and it worked, we started the proper recordings with the actors. This is the use of the AI we had in our company, and I think that it's quite reasonable."
He believes that AI should help people make their lives easier and shouldn't replace them. He is "not totally against AI," but he feels that it needs to evolve to the place "where it will be the tool which helps us, like Google Translate, not something which steals the author rights and creates the graphics or the animations because it learns from the creations of people."
Tomaszkiewicz doesn't think AI will be able to replace creatives, as the robotic approach will be visible. "It can help, but not replace them. I don't feel that games created with only AI will have soul. I don't believe it. Really."
"I finished Dispatch recently," he continued, "which is my game of the year. I love this game. And I don't believe that AI could create something like this. It's not possible. You need to have people who feel, who have this creative fire, who want to prove something, who want to tell you a particular story and create emotions in these particular moments. A machine will not understand us as much."
Now, Rebel Wolves is working on The Blood of Dawnwalker, a dark fantasy RPG about a half-vampire, and hopefully, Tomaszkiewicz's belief in human touch will be tangible in the game.
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