A month ago we reported that EA CEO Andrew Wilson was using generative AI tools to boost the efficiency of EA's studios, and he returned to the topic on a call with investors this week. Saying that EA's developers are “hungry” themselves. Put AI to work on your projects.
“We've analyzed all of our development processes, and right now, based on our initial assessment, we believe more than 50% of our development processes will be positively impacted by advances in generative AI,” Wilson responded. ” On a question about technology. “And we have teams across the company that are really looking to act against that.”
Wilson believes that with 40 years worth of proprietary data to “feed” into generative AI models (in some unspecified way), EA will increase performance over the next three years, and five years or so. , will take things further by using AI. That performance comes in creating “bigger worlds with more characters and more interesting stories.”
“And I'll tell you, there's a real hunger among our developers to get this done as quickly as possible,” Wilson said, “because, again, the holy grail for us is bigger, more innovative, more creative. , to make more fun. Faster games so we can bring more people around the world entertainment at a faster pace.”
Of course, it was only a few years ago that we were hearing from games industry executives about the great potential of blockchain and the “metaverse” – not so much anymore. For his part, Wilson hasn't done as much work on crypto as some of his contemporaries, calling NFTs “an important part of the future of our industry” and then later saying that “the crowd” in general is what matters. . Still, it bears repeating that executives are overly excited about tech that they can hold up as a new magic bullet or “holy grail,” as Wilson puts it.
However, the real use of creative AI is expanding in the sports industry. Earlier this year, the Game Developers Conference published the results of a survey showing that 31% of game developers already use generative AI. AI tools are mostly used for business, marketing and management purposes, but 25% said their studios included generative AI in programming, and 21% said it was used in game design at their company. Is.
Despite its growing acceptance by studio managers, most individual game developers are concerned about the ethics of using generative AI: 42% of GDC survey respondents said they were “very concerned” about the issue. “concerned,” another 42% said they were “somewhat concerned,” and only 12% said they were not at all concerned.
To some extent, Wilson is probably referring to AI tools that are less sensational and controversial than sound and image generators. For example, developers are using AI to automate tedious tasks like rigging 3D models. His predictions go beyond the performance benefits, though: Wilson said last month that he foresees creative AI becoming not only an internal development tool, but also something that will be “used around the world.” ’s three billion players” will use to create their own EA games. Content He reiterated that approach this week.
“And maybe over a five-year time horizon,” Wilson said, “we think about how we take all the tools that we build and offer them to the community at large so that we To actually get new and exciting and innovative and different kinds of game experiences, again, not to replace what we do but to enhance, enhance, enhance the nature of that interactive entertainment. What could happen is what YouTube did for traditional film and television.”
I think machine learning has the potential to be much more transformative than the blockchain stuff, but I don't have the confidence that a games industry exec claims to know when and how it will happen. One thing I wonder about is how much fun players will actually get from using or interacting with the generative AI. Already, novelty seems to have killed AI image generators: you don't see as many 'I asked an AI what so-and-so looks like' posts going viral anymore. Now it seems they just cut corners, create propagandistic images and make Facebook scrollers go “Wow!” are used to say. Under fake interior design photos.
In related news, Wilson also said during this week's investor call that the next Battlefield game will be a “great live service.”