The rise of generative AI and the mixed reactions of 2023

The year 2023 will be remembered as the year the generative AI market exploded into a major cornerstone of the tech industry. Some have even described 2023 as the “break-out year” of AI. The impact of AI models in various economic sectors has been received with mixed reactions – depending on who, how, and where its effects are felt.

Gamers hate generative AI

The gaming industry seems to be one of the most affected by the rise of generative AI in 2023. Jobs in gaming companies have been cut by huge margins. This is a chart created by Farhan Noor, a game developer. The chart shows the various gaming companies affected by generative AI and the number of job cuts. Over 50 game studies have had to reduce their workforce because of AI. Among the many companies affected include Activision Blizzard, Nexon, Riot Games, Ubisoft, Gameloft, Unity, Amazon Games, Electronic Arts, and Epic Games. Simply put, generative AI was a pretty disruptive development in the gaming and tech industry this year.

Even after months of job cuts, the AI effect hasn’t subsided. Just this November, Microsoft released its new AI toolkit. Many have viewed this as a danger to writers, game developers, and even actors. While generative AI is great at simplifying and speeding up production, its impact on human labor is profound. Those affected by it hate it.

Another factor is the fact that people still crave for human connection even if the content or features generated by AI are great. Just the knowledge of the origin of it affects the user. That’s according to Ben Prendergast. Ben is the voice actor for Apex Legends and God of War: Ragnarok.

Is AI solely responsible for people losing jobs?

It’s true that a lot of game studies have laid off people this year. Reasons given for these actions span from financial difficulties to office restructuring. However, one of the major factors is the spike in hiring experienced during Covid-19 period when people had a lot of time on their hands to delve into gaming. After the pandemic ended, people cut back on their spending on games and time spent on the platforms reduced. This created budget issues to an already expanded industry. In this case, generative AI cannot be solely blamed for people being laid off in 2023.

While a lot of people are afraid of losing their jobs to AI, companies like Google Cloud are focused on developing AI platforms to aid developers in their work instead of replacing them in their jobs. Google Cloud executive, Jack Buser, says,

“With generative AI, those that create games—designers, developers, artists, marketers, and more—can revolutionize how they work, and expand the range of experiences they can deliver.”

Some studios are adopting a hardliner stance – is it real or just a flex?

Most of the gaming studios have adopted the use of generative AI to speed up production and increasing output. However, there are those that are still anti-AI and want nothing to do with it. Just this December, the developers at Wizards of the Coast announced a blanket ban on all and any AI-generated work in their fantasy franchise. The studio declared that it favors human creativity over algorithms.

Another game-related entity taking an anti-AI stance is the game marketplace called DriveThruRPG. Apparently, the marketplace will not be supporting AI-generated game content. Meanwhile, other platforms like Random Games (a gaming studio) has integrated generative AI to police chatboxes for profanities and help shorten texts.

As things stand, generative AI seems to have a bright future even as opposition mounts. The new technology is expected to penetrate even more industries in the coming years.