Publisher Hooded Horse has officially banned the use of generative AI in all projects released under its banner. This was announced by the company's CEO, Tim Bender, in an interview with Kotaku.
According to him, the corresponding clause is now clearly and unambiguously stated in all publishing agreements with developers.
"I f***ing hate AI art, it causes nothing but problems, seeping in where it shouldn't. It's now written in black and white in our publishing contracts: no f***ing AI assets."
He then clarified his position more specifically.
"We've gotten to the point where we now advise developers not to use generative AI at any stage of production, because some of them will otherwise think, 'Okay, well, maybe I'll insert it here as a placeholder,' right? Some people think that way: they would never put it in the final game, but they decide, 'It'll serve as a placeholder in this prototype.' But if that happens, of course, there's a risk that it'll slip through-just one such case in some build where it's not replaced or something. Because of this, we're forced to constantly be vigilant, catch and stop such attempts, because it's pure cancer."
At the same time, according to Bender, this is not about a "PR problem" when games with AI assets are "canceled" by dissatisfied users. He is much more concerned about the ethical side of the issue. Kotaku does not provide direct quotes, but notes that for Bender, "this is a matter of morality related to tools trained on plagiarism of other people's work."
In the comments to the original Kotaku article, users noted a symptomatic situation where"the indie scene has started a war with itself over AI, while major studios continue to quietly use neural networks and sell millions of copies of Call of Duty and Battlefield."