PlayStation Boss Hermen Hulst: AI Won't Replace the 'Human Touch' in Game Development

No, it won't. But it'll cut costs. Big corporations love that.

I’m more positive about AI than most.

A dream would be to allow people to create and ai to actually code, so their creations come to life, fast, and without the spiralling costs we are seeing.

I also wouldn’t mind incidental bits of “art” to be done by ai, so we no longer have those awful overseas companies churning out pieces of furniture, etc, with staff likely sleeping under their desks.

In select cases I think ai could even create something “original”, something a human brain simply would not think of with the same prompts and experiences (and I use “original” in quotations because I know that, just like human beings, everything created is based on previous exposures).

Where I would absolutely draw the line, however, is in ai writing scripts or providing “voice acting”. For humans it just wouldn’t be the same experience.

I think every game that uses AI should have a label attached. Let the consumer decide what they prefer.

However, even though I’m a dinosaur and will fight against AI and for physical media, I think AI impacting gaming is inevitable.

A.I. can be a useful tool to help make artists' jobs easier. It's not, however, a tool that can replace artists altogether, and should never be viewed as such.

There will never ever be anything that is more technically advanced and intrisic as the human body.

PS - Herman give Mr Cerny a kick up the arse and get him a plane ticket to Ubisoft HQ to show them how to do pro patches, k thx bye.

I think AI could actually be beneficial especially for indie devs, if it was used for smaller details such as generating textures, uv mapping, code, that kind of thing. As in indie dev myself I wouldn't want AI to make my game for me, I would derive no satisfaction from that.

But most likely ai will be largely only used by the big corporations to save money like others are saying.

Was there any kind of human touch in Concord?

@DualWielding yes that’s why it flopped

@DualWielding
Yeah, but not the good kind. Still, I'd rather a bad game made by people than having AI replace humans in creative fields like gaming.

AI will have more human touch than humans in the not too distant future.

I don't care how they make their games as long as I don't "see" or "feel" the AI.
Also after now completing the new Dragon Age, I'd rather have some 6-fingered AI people running around than be subjected to this human touch of preaching.

It’s the way the world is going and honestly I think games made using AI and incorporating AI could be interesting. Not necessarily saying good or bad but the prospects are definitely interesting. I’m thinking:

• Open ended RPGs which write the story as you go depending on your near limitless choices (think BG3 with absolutely no ceiling).
• GTA style games taking place in entire countries rather than a single city. Imagine stealing a plane in Gatwick and parachuting into Newquay!
• FPS games where the NPCs actually show human like intelligence rather than the “AI” we have accepted as good: Hide behind cover, pop out, unload magazine, duck back down.

Humans have always strived to make things quicker, cheaper and simpler and AI is just the next evolution of that. Will it replace jobs? Almost certainly, but probably about as much as self service tills have replaced jobs in supermarkets. You still need a couple of staff members to handle that unexpected item in the bagging area but they can get through more customers with less resources. I think in 10-20 years time AI is just going to be as intertwined with our lives as the internet. It will come with downsides but so has nearly every major advancement in human history.

That's great Herman, but how do we get you replaced?

While I'm a bit sketchy on AI's creative impact on game development, I do think it can be helpful, especially for squashing bugs. Having a trained AI run through a game at breakneck speed with varied playstyles could be really effective and, most of all, efficient during the QA process.

And water is wet, did anyone hear that? 🙄

No just LIVE SERVICE GAMES will because we don't care we lost millions on a concord but hey every cloud and all that

While that's a sign it doesn't change the human touch of execs, pubs, devs and what they are capable of, what their vision/creativity/money focus and other values end up as does it Herman? So how is it that much more reassuring to me or the audience?

Whether juniors or veterans whether Indies made by veterans because of how AAA is or how particular you can have of Indie taste I have that others don't of course and have better value/views then I do for sure I am very harsh on Indies then I should be.

I still question any of the game design in modern gaming still not appealing to me in the slightest most times.

From most 1st party or 3rd party on any console/PC platform anyways. So they aren't getting my money regardless of their human touch.

depends on what AI Means:
AI used for subtitles syncing like Spider-man 2? makes sense.
AI used for concept art or QA? BAD
AI used for upscaling? Makes sense
AI wrt to enemy behaviour and interaction? Very good if done well.
Putting artists work into ML programs? BAD

Example of good AI? MGS 5, TLOU 2 and GT7 SOPHY.
Example of bad AI? MS Flight Simulator, AI trash games on Steam.

@Jrs1 “ There will never ever be anything that is more technically advanced and intrisic as the human body.”

I think the earth (& galaxy) is

Also some animals have some pretty cool things about them that humans wish they had. humans just have big brain 😛

I might be in the minority but I live a crafted experience more than anything. Playing an rpg that has ai generated npc dialog sounds awful and means other people will potentially get a much better experience than I will. Generally when I play a game I want to see the artistic vision of the studio come to life. AI at this point barely earns the I in its name. It’s mostly just a word predictor that works to make something somewhat useful due to the amount of data processed behind it and an extremely clever algorithm. At the same time I have reviewed many contracts that start ups created with LMMs and they are all hot garbage. AI is important new technology but it’s also likely the next bubble to burst in the coming decade.