It feels like we're hurtling towards a future where big publishers value AI over actual employees, and so this new report on EA's current trajectory makes for some particularly dire reading.
The colossal company, which, let's not forget, has agreed to be bought out by a Saudi-led investment consortium, is apparently forcing AI into just about every facet of its operations.
Business Insider cites a number of anonymous sources from within EA, who claim that management has been aggressively pushing AI for the past year or so — to the point where it can actively harm a team's work cycle.
In particular, there's talk of programmers being pressed into using AI to streamline their coding duties, except the AI models are creating inefficient code that then needs to be manually rewritten. Perfect.
But it's not just the actual game development that's being impacted by the rise of AI. It's also being used to compile reports on things like QA testing, instead of having a real person look through the feedback and come to an informed (and above all, human) conclusion.
There's even mention of AI training courses that employees are encouraged to undergo, and, perhaps most dystopian of all, workers are being directed towards AI "thought partners", which can offer advice on what they need to accomplish in order to be in line for a promotion.
Basically, the report covers all kinds of ways that EA's upper crust is swamping the organisation's inner workings with AI "solutions". Of course, the chief concern is that once AI is introduced in such a fashion, it's only a matter of time until it starts taking people's jobs.
There's a real worry that creative positions — like concept artists — will be made redundant through a reliance on AI generation.
Right now, EA has around 15,000 employees, and many of them will be braced for what's to come. Between the aforementioned acquisition — which some analysts fully expect to result in widespread job loss as the new owners gun for immediate cost cutting — and the forced introduction of AI, it's looking grim for those on the ground floor.
What's your take on all of this? Will you be avoiding EA's output if it continues down this reported road? Wonder what the future of game development looks like in the comments section below.