Think Nvidia’s new feature that applies AI filters to your favorite games looks like garbage? Well, the company’s CEO Jensen Huang says you’re “completely wrong.” tom’s hardware I will report.
On Monday, the multitrillion-dollar gaming hardware and AI chipmaker announced a new AI-powered software feature called DLSS 5, which quickly drew widespread criticism. A dramatic step up from previous DLSS, which focused on graphics upscaling, the latest version used a generative AI model that “injects scenes with photorealistic lighting and materials anchored to the source 3D content.”
Gamers went wild over the demo video shared by Nvidia. The video featured snippets of games like the Resident Evil series overlaid with a familiar AI sheen. Face-tuning has an off-putting quality, with characters like Grace Ashcroft, the blonde in Resident Evil, appearing straight-up thin with trendy sunken cheeks and pouty lips.
Many argued that the AI feature undermined artistic intent and was another example of AI failing. Some people call this “sloptracing,” a play on Nvidia’s ray tracing technology.
Huang clearly disagrees with these characterizations.
“First of all, they’re completely wrong,” Huang said. Tom’s at the publication’s GTC 2026 event.
“The reason is, as I’ve explained very carefully, DLSS 5 combines control over geometry and texture and everything about the game with generative AI.”
During the initial announcement, Huang called DLSS 5 “GPT’s moment in graphics” and argued that its use still “retains the control artists need for creative expression.” Many had a hard time accepting that promise, considering that some characters’ faces and even scenery were drastically changed.
But in his response to the backlash, Huang was even more tempered, emphasizing that DLSS 5 “doesn’t change artistic control” and said developers can still “tweak the generation AI” to suit their own style.
“This is not post-processing, it’s not frame-level post-processing. It’s geometry-level production control,” he argued in a jargon-filled rant.
And if developers want to, they can use AI features to even more dramatically change the aesthetics of their games, such as being able to create “toon shaders” or making games look like they’re “made of glass,” he said.
“All of that is under the direct control of the game developer,” Haun said. “This is very different from generative AI. It’s content-controlled generative AI. That’s why we call it neural rendering.”
In summary, it is not generative AI. Is that…generation AI?
We’re not convinced it’s an argument that will sway gamers, and calling customers “wrong” is certainly an option. Still, this is just the latest example of Huang’s enthusiasm for AI (after all, selling graphics cards to gamers didn’t make him the world’s most valuable company). Late last year, he reportedly slammed managers who told employees to refrain from using AI. In his view, it would be “crazy” not to use AI for literally every possible task.
Learn more about AI: Unity announces new product uses AI to cook entire games
