Recently, Valve made headlines due to a controversial decision about a hot button topic. The video game company, which owns Steam, refused to publish a game that featured “a few assets that were fairly obviously AI generated” according to the developer.
The developer posted about it on Reddit, where it generated something of a buzz, with many of the platform’s users condemning the decision. In a bid to ensure more transparency on the subject, Valve has now come out to address the issue. Yesterday, the company provided a statement where it explained the rationale behind the decision.
Valve began by admitting its knowledge of AI is limited, especially when it comes to its use in game development. The company further admitted that these limitations mean it (Valve) doesn’t have a concrete guideline for reviewing games that use the technology.
It wrote, “Our priority, as always, is to try to ship as many of the titles we receive as we can. The introduction of AI can sometimes make it harder to show a developer has sufficient rights in using AI to create assets, including images, text, and music.”
The video game company reiterated that developers are responsible for ensuring their game is eligible for publishing and does not infringe on any copyright. Valve clarified that, even though it is open to and encourages innovation, it won’t welcome games that use content with questionable copyrights.
Given the ridiculous pace of AI advancement, we see reason in this sentiment. Virtually every industry has been upended since the technology went mainstream and easily accessible late last year. While some people have made peace with it and have found an ideal way to incorporate it into their work, there are still many unresolved issues surrounding it.
Right now, the primary hurdle seems to be claims of copyright infringement. In January, stock image company Getty Images sued Stable Diffusion for copyright violation. Less than a week ago, a group of authors filed a similar lawsuit against OpenAI.
With issues like this, Valve’s stance makes some kind of sense. Naturally, the company will want to protect itself from potentially ruinous lawsuits. However, it would be doing a horrible job of that if it allows any and every developer to include AI-generated content in their creations, as those could then be contested.
Valve even made this clear in its statement. The company wrote, “We know it [AI] is a constantly evolving tech, and our goal is not to discourage the use of it on Steam; instead, we’re working through how to integrate it into our already-existing review policies.
It continued, “Stated plainly, our review process is a reflection of current copyright law and policies, not an added layer of our opinion. As these laws and policies evolve over time, so will our process.” Taking the approach of waiting and seeing is a clever tactic.
Even though Valve is trying to play things safe, its position might end up placing it on the wrong side of history. Many companies are embracing AI despite the risks and challenges that are attached, and the fact that the company isn’t doing this has already angered some of its users.
If a rival company were to allow the use of AI-generated content in its games, there is a high possibility that many developers who ply their trade on Valve will jump ship.
