The director of Paradox's epic sci-fi strategy game Stellaris has revealed that the studio's latest expansion, The Machine Age, features AI voices for characters and AI-generated art and text. claimed that its use of AI-generated assets is “ethical.” Its in development.
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Stephen 'Eladrin' Muray responded to discussion and concerns from players on the game's subreddit regarding The Machine Age's disclaimer regarding “generative AI technology” on Steam. [were used] This includes two voices heard in the final release: the in-universe AI antagonist and the player advisor.
Muray clarified that the developer does not use any AI-generated artwork used to create the final expansion or concept art (“We have some great concept artists on staff for that”). However, he acknowledged that there were “several” people. Some of the images generated by the AI may have been included, for example, on the team's mood board during development.
“Personally, I use image generation tools to create basic sketches of what the system designer and I are thinking about. I'm really bad at art, but what I think we're thinking about is… We're pretty good at making computers do things,” Murray said. “The artists then take our ideas and may or may not use them as inspiration to create their final assets. None of those design images are used in the game. not.”
Murray also tried to explain Steam's disclaimer. [the use of AI technologies] “It includes ideas for content and visual references,” the team said, using AI-generated text to give players an idea of what players might find inside the mystery box, as Muray explains. Ask for suggestions about “inspiration” prompts for them.
“None of the results or generated text are included in the game,” Muray reiterates, and the game's disclaimer also claims that “these elements represent a minor component of the overall development.” I am.
More controversial are the elements created by AI. teeth In the final release, we found two voices specifically generated by AI: the in-universe AI, Synthetic Queen Setana, and the player's advisor.
Muray asserted that the developers “have set strict guidelines that we adhere to on how to use AI tools legally and ethically,” adding that the human base on which the generative AI models were based They claimed that the voice actors had explicitly signed up for its use. AI receives royalties for AI voice lines created based on that sample.
“The ethical use of AI technology is very important to us. We're good at exploring dystopian science fiction, and we don't want to end up there ourselves,” Muray wrote. , added that an upcoming developer diary will provide more details about the use of AI technology. Voice generated by AI.
Of course, Stellaris isn't the first game to utilize this controversial technology, with multiplayer shooter The Finals using AI to generate commentary and Uncover the Smoking Gun turning ChatGPT text prompts into a murder mystery game. I am. Still, AI remains particularly divisive, especially when it comes to AI-generated audio, with actors union SAG-AFTRA's decision earlier this year to allow the use of AI voice replicas to It often ends up legitimately upsetting the people who built the models based on talent and effort. without just compensation.
That ongoing controversy can already be seen in a recent Steam review of The Machine Age, where many players believe that the generated AI is being treated in an “ethical” manner, but in any way It criticizes the decision to utilize generative AI.
