Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said the company is cautious about using AI in game development due to “intellectual property rights issues.”
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a part of video games since the beginning, but its role in game development has expanded rapidly in recent years, with Xbox starting to use AI tools for “dialogue, story, and quest design.”
Other major publishers such as Ubisoft and EA have quickly jumped on the bandwagon, with EA claiming to be “aggressively embracing” AI, citing the technology's potential to make games 30% more efficient in the future.
But while other companies have embraced AI, Nintendo remains staunchly opposed, fearing it could affect its intellectual property rights.
During a recent Q&A with investors, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa revealed the company's vision for using generative AI in games, stating:
“In the game industry, AI-like technology has long been used to control the movements of enemy characters, and game development and AI technology have always been closely related.
“Generative AI, which has been much talked about in recent years, has the potential to be more creative, but we are aware of the issues surrounding intellectual property rights.
“We have decades of accumulated know-how in creating optimal gaming experiences for our customers. We will continue to provide our unique value that cannot be achieved through technology alone while flexibly responding to technological developments,” he said, as translated by TweakTown.
It's not all that surprising that Nintendo, which has a long history of suing individuals and companies that use its games without permission, is taking a cautious stance when it comes to using AI in game development.
The company's main concern may be that using an AI trained on someone else's intellectual property could weaken its position when trying to stop others from using its intellectual property.
In theory, AI could be extremely useful in solving some of the video game industry's problems, helping to reduce the massive amount of time and money it currently takes to produce AAA games.
But apart from legal concerns, there are also moral concerns about people losing their jobs and the quality of the jobs they get as a result.
This is not an issue that needs any more momentum than it already is. Last year, the video game industry suffered mass layoffs, with over 10,000 people losing their jobs.
Nintendo's cautious approach seems even more reasonable when you consider that Japanese companies are hiring at an unprecedented pace while Western countries are shedding jobs at record rates.
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