Having officially established 'Cygames AI Studio' just last week, Granblue Fantasy developer Cygames has now published an apology on social media.
As you can imagine, the initial announcement went down incredibly poorly, given the heavy cynicism that currently surrounds generative AI use in video games.
Without going into too much detail, the company stated that the newly opened studio would be dedicated to the research and development of AI projects. Again, there was an immediate, widespread backlash.
However, this apology isn't necessarily apologising for establishing the AI studio in the first place. Instead, Cygames suggests that it didn't do a good job of explaining its intentions.
"We released a simplified announcement in Japanese concerning the founding of Cygames AI Studio, Inc., without addressing any of the current problems and social debates surrounding generative AI. We sincerely apologize for the concern we’ve caused," it writes.
Cygames then attempts to calm things down: "We would like to take this opportunity to state that art produced from generative AI isn’t used in our products. Furthermore, we won’t implement generative AI into our products without prior notice."
Of course, this statement's already being scrutinised. Cygames says that it won't make use of generative AI without disclosure, and it's obviously opened this AI-based studio for a reason. It certainly doesn't seem as though Cygames is backtracking on its investment in any real way.
What do you make of all this? What do you think the future holds for Cygames? Release your own statement in the comments section below.