'I Don't Think Prompting Is Art': The Last of Us Co-Creator Isn't a Fan of Generative AI 1

Generative AI continues to be a very hot topic among the gaming community, and this week has seen some interesting swings on either side of the debate.

CEO of Larian Studios, Swen Vincke, caused a lot of upset with his comments on how the team is utilising the controversial tools in the production of its next game, Divinity.

Now, another voice in the games medium has had his say on the matter; Bruce Straley, best known as co-creator and co-director on The Last of Us, has given a thumbs down to gen AI.

In an interview with Polygon about his next title, Coven of the Chicken Foot, he makes it clear that his team at Wildflower Studios is not using it in development, and says it's a creative dead end.

"It's a snake eating its own tail," Straley says. "It can’t grow and think for itself, it just consumes, and it tries to mimic what it’s consumed. That’s the best it can do right now."

Coven of the Chicken Foot features a companion creature that learns from you and aids you throughout the adventure, in a similar way to Trico in The Last Guardian. However, despite this companion being driven by the game's AI, it does not rely on generative AI at all — it's all manually programmed by real developers.

There's some frustration from Straley that discussing the new game is difficult because the term "AI companion" can now be easily misinterpreted.

"It’s difficult to even pitch the concept of this creature, because in my world, NPCs are AI," Straley says.

"AI programmers are a type of personnel you have on staff in the programming department. Now you can’t say that because if somebody does have an opinion about AI, I can’t now call this creature the most advanced AI companion. People are going to think we did machine learning, and LLMs, and all that. No, we did none of that. This is hard work, and a lot of problem solving, and a lot of creative thinking. Which I think makes it more charming. I like art that has chips and flaws. It’s like pottery. It has imperfections because it didn’t come out of the kiln right. That’s the cool stuff about art."

Straley continues, saying that art created by generative AI lacks the soul that makes human art meaningful.

"I feel like without a human being the creation, I personally have zero investment in wanting to watch a TV show made by a robot. I have zero interest in looking at art that is generated by a computer," he says. "I don’t think prompting is art."

There have been several examples this year of games implementing generative AI to some degree. The likes of ARC Raiders, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Let It Die: Inferno, and many others have been the subject of criticism and debate among players.

[source polygon.com, via eurogamer.net]