Industry veteran Casey Hudson, who was at the origins of the original Mass Effect trilogy and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, sharply criticized generative artificial intelligence. According to the developer, modern AI tools seem to him "creatively soulless" and unimpressive.
I find AI creatively soulless. It's hard for me to imagine where it could truly be useful. Honestly, it doesn't impress me at all.
Hudson currently heads Arcanaut studio, which is working on the large-scale role-playing game Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic — a spiritual successor to KOTOR. The project is being created in partnership with Lucasfilm Games, and additional funding of $100 million was provided by NetEase veteran Simon Zhu.
The statement is particularly noteworthy against the backdrop of Hudson's and his team's ambitious plans. Arcanaut Studios intends to create a full-fledged AAA action-RPG based on Star Wars, release it before 2030, and at the same time avoid expanding the team to "hundreds and hundreds of employees." For the modern industry, where the development of major games often takes five to seven years, such a goal seems extremely difficult.
Against this background, many expected the studio to actively use AI tools at least to accelerate individual stages of production — for example, testing or content generation. However, Hudson's comments make it clear that the use of generative artificial intelligence in the creative part of development at Arcanaut Studios is apparently not being considered.