According to one of the top bosses at PlayStation, the rise in artificial intelligence technologies in game development has the potential to “revolutionize” gaming, but only as a tool that assists humans.
“Striking the right balance between leveraging AI and preserving the human touch will be crucial,” Hermen Hulst told the BBC.
He went on to predict that the gaming industry will see a “dual demand,” split between AI-driven “innovative experiences” and a second for “handcrafted, thoughtful content.”
There are concerns among industry developers about the potential for advancements to AI ending up taking jobs from humans. This is part of the reason why video game voice actors are now on strike and why some labor unions are calling on workers to organize.
Another video game executive, Christoph Hartmann of Amazon, said he believes AI could replace “boring” parts of video game jobs, including localization as he sees it. However, Hartmann and others believe the rise in AI technologies will create enough new jobs to offset any potential job losses. EA’s Andrew Wilson previously said the agricultural and industrial revolutions took many jobs but created countless more, and he sees an AI revolution following a similar playbook.
The video game industry had another tough year in 2024 with thousands of worker layoffs, along with game cancellations and studio closures. A number of companies whose executives are speaking positively about AI–including Microsoft, EA, Amazon, and PlayStation–have all cut jobs in the past year. Whether or not these cuts were at all related to AI is unknown, however.