'AI Can Help Our Team Get to the Right Answers Faster': Tomb Raider PS5's Controversy Explained

Let's hope they aren't as lazy as the Oblivion remaster devs.

The way they're claiming they're using AI seems perfectly fine with me.

I honestly don't understand the argument about the AI prototype influencing the final product. How is that any different from using reference artwork made by other people? Why is the latter more acceptable?

Should we demonize an artist for copying a barrel from real life? That barrel was created by someone else who wouldn't be credited in the final game.

'AI Can Help Our Team Get to the Right Answers Faster'

Not as fast as I cancelled my preorder. Say no to AI, people.

Don't care if they use it, and nope, don't think they need to announce the tools they use to make games either.

The end product is all that matters to me.

This approach can definitely speed up time. But it depends on what the asset it to a degree. I think this would do wonders for stylized games or fictional assets, stuff you can’t find references for as easily. If it’s realistic then there plenty of examples out there and they can parse through a library of assets.

Now there definitely need to be rules and regulations about not creating the genAI images 1 to 1 and claiming it as am asset said artist created via “their own creativity”. But pulling inspiration and comforting off it by mixing and matching different elements, totally fair game in my opinion.

It’s a delicate mentality but if it allows the artist to get the creative juices flowing easily, and create quality hand made human assets, then go for it.

And I really hope people actually read the article and not just the headline before blasting off in the comments.

@wildcat_kickz Gonna say, this seems like a valid use for AI. Mood boarding especially is a drag, and in this respect is no different than doing that and having loads of references to existing art and real world objects.

It just quicker.

If the final thing is made by AI, then it misses that human touch of imperfections and can seem odd. There's a line here for me, and it's at using it for the final product. But anything to speed up the boring bits is fine by me. Those were the worst back when I studied game development.

God am I glad I jumped ship from that in 2018.

I appreciate them being open about it. A lot aren’t until they get caught. I’m still considering this game. This doesn’t sound nearly as bad as some others, so I can live with it.

I don't like how the PR blocked any follow-up questions though. What are they hiding?

Day 1 before the AI "controversy" still Day 1 after it

Get used to it, kids. AI is here to stay. It's faster, it's easier, it's cheaper.

@Haruki_NLI Yeah, I definitely don't want AI-generated assets in the final product, but arguing against using AI for reference seems silly to me. It's not "taking away" artist jobs, it's just letting the artist have an easier time.

It's like being mad that emails took away post office jobs.

@INeedGoodGraphics don't be that guy. They prepared a statement and that's it.

To the people who say AI is fine will you still say that when devs are shown the door for AI because trust me once AI is good enough to replace the whole dev team it will. These gaming companies are capitalist through and through and would throw the whole developer team in the rubbish tomorrow if AI was good enough.

And that's not even mentioning the real world problems like the amount of electricity and water data centres require. Heck I read a story the other day about how AI is growing and adding to itself at an alarming speed and eventually won't need human oversight.

AI can be a useful tool so long it does not replace human labor. Background asset generation is, imo, a fair use of generative AI.

Just avoid it for things that are meant to add identity like paintings, documents or landmarks and focus it on spitting out… I don’t know… coffee mugs and apples. Do so with the goal of empowering the team to do work faster instead of the goal of replacing them.

@INeedGoodGraphics I think saying that "AI is bad. Period." is as bad an argument as "AI is good. Period."

All technology can be abused.

If you're that worried about environmental impact, then you should probably stop playing video games all together. You think the servers for your cloud saves and online infrastructure are exempt from impacting the planet?

Oh noes, a big bad AI. Protest all you want, soon it stops being a controversy and becomes a norm.

@wildcat_kickz
Sure it's bad but nothing compared to AI centres. And I was mostly pointing out the naivety of people saying 'as long as it's only for this'.

The suits who run these companies are greedy money hungry capitalists. It won't stop with little things, and it amazes me people think it will.

Good. Anything that upsets the anti-AI luddite loons works for me.

@INeedGoodGraphics I understand what you're saying, but it really depends on the company and how much autonomy is granted to their employees. Some companies treat their employees better than others. They're all for-profit and we're seeing that if many can't cut costs, they just shut the whole thing down. It's hard to argue that that is the desirable outcome. It may be naive to think that there's some imaginary line that won't be crossed, but it's equally naive to think that we can just will AI out of existence.

Honestly, I'm all for it if it's just used as a reference and the end result is translated via human being.

@wildcat_kickz I don't know I guess either way we'll see eventually. I don't really have any faith in any developer, but maybe they will surprise me.

I'm still just so mad about the Oblivion remaster laziness. I don't want to see that in a game again. I'm talking about outside a house it has no windows but go in the house, and it has two big fronts windows sort of stuff btw.

Simply from an environmental perspective, I am strongly against AI due the resources required for the computing. Using AI to assist medicine seems like a good use of the technology. I'm sure there are other uses that promote human well-being, but it should be used sparingly considering the fragile state of the environment. We're currently trashing the planet.

@wildcat_kickz

How is that any different from using reference artwork made by other people?

Because it's most likely replacing concept artists, and concept artist is probably a common starting position for most major video game senior artist and art directors.

@INeedGoodGraphics

I'm talking about outside a house it has no windows but go in the house, and it has two big fronts windows sort of stuff btw.

Is that an AI problem or a bad QA problem? I feel like I've seen that kind of bad design long before AI was a thing, especially in Bethesda games.

Obviously, there are examples of using AI to just be lazy and I'm not discounting that. The GTA remasters are a pretty good example of that.

@wildcat_kickz I don't know I might download the original later on and check if it's in that version too.

I still don't know where the line should be drawn but again, seeing repeated faces and voices in open worlds shows humans can't do it all.

@Swandivetotheasphalt It's possible, but the problem I have with that argument is that you're assuming the absolute worst and using it as an argument against a company without evidence. If a company actually replaced their concept artists with AI, then I'd have a problem, but I'm not going preemptively get mad at a company because they could do that, but aren't. This is some Minority Report pre-crime silliness.

How exactly is this more effective than making a quick placeholder? The team uses less of their imagination for affirmation?

This sounds like an innocent enough use of the tech. But I think in the gaming space people are narrow focused on what AI means for artistic endeavors. Don't forget, people, pollution, worker's rights, fabricated reality,etc. There's MANY more downsides to AI than just slop. And I'd argue it holistically isn't worth encouraging.

@1970sGamer There's no easier way to make your thoughts on the matter look entirely unserious than saying "luddite."

@D6rkLordS6t6n Yeah man AI is sure killing the environment meanwhile they are billionaires with their private jets flying all over the world 100x more than the average person emitting CO2 and nitrogen oxides. Miss me with that

I’m all for AI if it helps shorten the dev time. They need to come back to ps2-ps3 days of getting out a trilogy of a series in 4 years, so 2 years dev time for sequels, and maybe 3-4 for new ip. This should be the standard and AI should be utilised as much as possible to get to that timeframe, all else should be human made.

@helloim_anthony Can't...both be bad?

Taking a nihilistic approach to the environment really doesn't help anything.

@doughnutsfan As much as I think contemporary Sony, and generally AAA games, aren't outputting enough, there was a huge cost to those frequent releases of yesteryear. Watch Golden Bolt's retrospectives on the Ratchet and Clank franchise to hear how horrowing things could get.

@INeedGoodGraphics
Realistically, for the average consumer, yes they will continue to say AI is good. The big divide here is that AI still can't match something hand crafted. Once they are capable however? The brakes are off. Imagine getting a new game announcement and you hear the game is releasing that year because AI is vastly speeding up production? The average consumer won't care it's putting all those devs out of work if it means they get to play GoW or Wolverine next week.