“It's not a magic wand”: devs criticize Neil Druckmann for his take on AI

The artificial intelligence will have more and more applications in the development of video games. For this reason, important creatives of the industry have given their position on the subject and have generated all kinds of comments among players and other developers.

Such is the case of Neil Druckmann, creative and executive of Naughty Dog, who recently stated that artificial intelligence will revolutionize video game development. From his perspective, it will help save time and lower production costs.

Some of his colleagues used social networks to express their disagreement with the PlayStation developer, so they criticized his stance and reminded him that artificial intelligence is not some kind of “magic wand”.

Creatives disagree with Neil Druckmann on AI

The topic of artificial intelligence and its use in creative activities continues to generate controversy in various sectors. The video game industry is no exception, as there are creatives who are not enthusiastic about the idea of using it in their projects due to all that it implies for developers and their work.

Nessa Cannon, narrative designer for Star Trucker, weighed in on Druckmann's comments and stated that she is concerned about the narrative quality that an artificial intelligence can offer developers today for their games.

"I'd love to watch a video of him attempting to use AI to 'push the boundaries of storytelling,'" the indie creative noted.

On the other hand, David Gaider, a developer working on Dragon Age, also criticized Druckmann as he believes he is downplaying the human factor involved in a creative and collaborative activity like writing a video game.

“This ignores the idea that collaboration is a thing. That all those people who work under a director didn't get into games just to be paid less and worked – they are all storytellers at heart, and they love games (...) I guess I'd hope he'd know better than to look at AI as some kind of magic wand," the creative stated.

Other big-name creatives, such as Josh Sawyer of Obsidian Entertainment, simply posted an image to rebuke the stance of the renowned Naughty Dog member.