Although Blizzard claims not to use AI in its main MMO, the company does use it for repetitive chores that boost player creativity in games.
Like other major motion picture studios and companies, gaming behemoth Blizzard Entertainment is using generative AI to create characters and locations for a variety of games, but it stops at its main massively multiplayer online game, World of Warcraft.
The New York Times revealed in May that Blizzard Entertainment had forbade staff members from utilizing third-party platforms in order to prevent intellectual property leaks and had implemented an internal proprietary AI tool.
“Our artists used to have to go through and build it for human form and then they’d have to go and retrofit all these things for all the various body shapes and horns and big snouts and tails and all that,” he said to the gaming news outlet.
“You see how many different characters we have—the fitting of armor on characters—you see how many different characters we have.”
“They just don’t find that to be very enjoyable work.”
“I believe we’re all working through that,” Hight stated. “
I think the artists on the team are afraid that the AI will be used to replace them in their jobs and they definitely don’t want their work to be used without their permission or without credit or whatever else.
The questions of rights and how much technology we use—but don’t utilize it—are also present. He stressed, “We’re not using generative AI within WoW.”
Microsoft, a behemoth in technology, completed the $68.7 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard in October. The next month, Microsoft and Inworld AI, a firm in its M12 Ventures portfolio, declared that they were creating generative AI tools for video games with the intention of empowering developers.
Not everyone is on board, though.
During the months-long SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, one of the main grounds of contention was the possibility of generative AI replacing writers and actors. When Decrypt asked Blizzard Entertainment for comment, the company did not answer right away.
April 2024, Cryptoniteuae
