The video game industry is hellbent on harnessing the power of generative AI to boost productivity and dream up virtual worlds — while also cutting costs, of course.
According to a recent Google Cloud survey, 87 percent of video game developers said they are using AI to automate and streamline tasks, a notable figure considering the industry has seen massive layoffs as costs rise and demand weakens following major COVID-era growth.
However, as staffers at major video game developer Electronic Arts — which is behind some of the biggest franchises in the industry, from “The Sims” to “Battlefield” — told Business Insider, their employer’s attempts to shoehorn AI into everyday tasks are seriously backfiring.
Some staffers told the outlet that the AI tools they’re encouraged to use produce flawed code, among other hallucinations that need to be addressed.
In other words, the tech may be creating more work, not less — which doesn’t bode well for an industry that’s already infamous for its crunch culture and high turnover rate.
Others staff are even more apprehensive, saying they’re being forced to dig their own graves by training AI programs to do their work. One former senior quality-assurance design employee told BI that he suspects the company laid him off this spring because AI was able to at least partially do his job of summarizing feedback from play testers.
Workers are getting increasingly fed up with being roped into their bosses’ all-in approach to AI, culminating in employees openly mocking them on Slack. One meme seen by BI poked fun at CEOs for wanting AI “right now,” despite not knowing what to do with it.
The trend also highlights the rift between the extremely high usage of AI among CEOs compared to much lower rates among employees. According to a recent survey by HR company Dayforce, a whopping 87 percent of executives said they used AI daily, compared to just 27 percent of workers.
“It’s a problem when the dogs won’t eat the dog food,” TD Cowen analyst Doug Creutz told BI.
Workers at Electronic Arts are being put through multiple AI training courses, and are encouraged to view the tech as a “thought partner,” according to internal documents seen by BI. They’re even being advised on how to use chatbots to learn how to deal with underperforming direct reports.
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