The Ethical Implications of AI-Generated Art in Game Development

In a presentation at Devcom, Judy Ehrentraut, creative content strategist at Red Meat Games, emphasized the significance of training generative AI models in an ethical manner and the potential benefits of utilizing these tools during game development. Ehrentraut acknowledged that AI is often viewed as either a revolutionary solution or an overhyped concept, but noted that its impact depends on how it is used and the approach taken. She stressed that AI is not inherently intelligent, but rather a tool that learns from the instructions it receives, whether from large language models or algorithms collecting data from the internet to create art that is essentially a mashup of various artists' work without human intent. This, Ehrentraut argued, creates a certain perception of the art generated by AI tools, with many artists debating the effects of this technology and expressing concerns that it undermines the creative process and the value of human effort. Ehrentraut emphasized that removing artists from the creative process is not ideal and that using AI to mass-produce art without human input can lead to a loss of intent, work, and collective intelligence. The internet is becoming increasingly saturated with AI-generated images, which are often used to further train AI models, creating a self-reinforcing cycle that can perpetuate errors and misunderstandings. Red Meat Games has been open about its use of generative AI in the development of its latest game, Moriarty, but instead of using tools like Midjourney, which have been accused of scraping artwork from the internet without permission, the studio opted for Scenario, a tool that allows artists to input their work and train an AI model. By using Scenario, the team can generate new art in real-time, giving the game long-term replayability, and the artists are more in control of the process, as the tool is specifically designed to do what is asked of it. Ehrentraut believes that this approach is more ethical, as the system already has a basic understanding of concepts and objects, and what it learns is based on what is given to it. For Red Meat Games, the goal is to utilize generative AI as a tool to create a more symbiotic relationship between humans and AI systems, with a focus on ascribing more ethical responsibility and transparency to AI. Ultimately, Ehrentraut concluded that AI should be viewed as one aspect of a larger production, a tool used by artists and creators to produce something that is then called art.