Companies pumping hundreds of billions in investment into new generative AI tools and LLM models promote it as a sea change technology that will be as revolutionary as the introduction of the desktop computer. Even some game industry figures believe it will usher in a new era in which games are made better, quicker, and more cheaply, democratizing development for creatives without hundred-person teams behind them. For indie publisher Tim Bender, the recent explosion in AI slop has been nothing but a headache. \u201cIf I sound frustrated, it\u2019s because, like, honestly, all this thing has done is made our lives more difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
The label he helps run as CEO, Hooded Horse, struck gold after signing the medieval base-builder mega hit Manor Lords, but its library of published games has grown far beyond it in the past two years with releases like the Lego-like tower-defense game\u00a0Cataclismo, the economic management sim Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic, and the 4X sequel Endless Legend 2. Being strategy games isn\u2019t the only thing they all have in common. They also all adhere to a strict ban on generative AI art.<\/p>\n
Battlefield 6 is getting accused of using Gen AI. pic.twitter.com\/fa2E79X8as<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Shooter Intel (@ShooterIntel) December 22, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI fucking hate gen AI art and it has made my life more difficult in many ways\u2026suddenly it infests shit in a way it shouldn\u2019t,\u201d Bender told me in a recent interview. \u201cIt is now written into our contracts if we\u2019re publishing the game, \u2018no fucking AI assets.’\u201d<\/p>\n It turns out that just saying no to gen AI is the easy part. Actually trying to enforce a ban is where things can get tricky. There\u2019s no magical machine you can put a game through to detect if it has generative AI content in it. Platforms like Steam, which require disclosures for the use of such content, basically operate on good faith that developers will be honest about what\u2019s in their games. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 briefly had AI placeholder art in one part of the game at launch before it was eventually pulled, but that box on the Steam page was never checked.<\/p>\n Production can be messy enough even within small studios. Development teams working with freelancers or outsource companies, as many indies do, will have an even harder time maintaining checks throughout the production pipeline to weed out any gen AI art usage.<\/p>\n \u201c[Gen AI art] is cancerous\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve gotten to the point where we also talk to developers and we recommend they don\u2019t use any gen AI anywhere in the process because some of them might otherwise think, \u2018Okay, well, maybe what I\u2019ll do is for this place, I\u2019ll put it as a placeholder,\u2019 right?\u201d Bender told me. \u201cLike some, people will have this thought, like they would never want to let it in the game, but they\u2019ll think, \u2018It can be a placeholder in this prototype build.\u2019 But if that gets done, of course, there\u2019s a chance that that slips through, because it only takes one of those slipping through in some build and not getting replaced or something.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued, \u201cbecause of that, we\u2019re constantly having to watch and deal with it and try to prevent it from slipping in, because it\u2019s cancerous.\u201d<\/p>\n Hooded Horse, which already this year helped usher the grand strategy sci-fi game Terra Invicta out of Early Access and into its 1.0 release, employs two full-time artists who help with all of the publisher\u2019s marketing art, which can include appearances in showcases and announcements for things like Xbox Game Pass launches. \u201cIt would be a betrayal of them to work with anything that is using gen-AI art, like, I wouldn\u2019t be able to face them if we had that right. And we\u2019re absolutely committed ethically, for all the reasons you know, against this,\u201d Bender said.<\/p>\n His point of view isn\u2019t one you hear a whole lot among the video game industry\u2019s giants. EA is all in on the potential for AI to make its loot-box-driven sports franchises even more lucrative. Embark Studios, maker of last year\u2019s mega-hit Arc Raiders, continues to shrug off complaints about the game\u2019s use of generative-AI voice performances.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t use AI to not have to hire people or replace people or job groups or voice actors,\u201d CEO Patrick S\u00f6derlund recently told GamesBeat<\/a>. \u201cPeople have to take a step back and understand what it is and how it can be a big help to developers and be a tremendous benefit to players. I realize it is an intricate subject and discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s about good ethics, not bad PR <\/p>\n There\u2019s also a sense among some developers that everyone else is rushing to embrace the AI revolution, and anyone who doesn\u2019t will find themselves left behind in a landscape that\u2019s increasingly competitive and hostile to new game releases. \u201cKorea is reportedly one of the countries where ChatGPT is used most actively,\u201d Sean Kim, the co-CEO of Lies of P publisher Neowiz, told Game Informer<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to find a game company here today that isn\u2019t using AI in some way. At the very least, companies are using either ChatGPT or Gemini.\u201d<\/p>\n Even some acclaimed GOTY winners have been captured by this mindset. \u201cOur successes come from empowering people to work in their own way and bring the best out of their skill & craft, so that we can make the best RPGs we can possibly make,\u201d Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 director Swen Vincke posted on X last month<\/a>. \u201cIn that context, it would be irresponsible for us not to evaluate new technologies. However, our processes are always evolving, and where they are not efficient or fail to align with who we are, we will make changes.\u201d<\/p>\n Holy fuck guys we\u2019re not “pushing hard” for or replacing concept artists with AI.<\/p>\n We have a team of 72 artists of which 23 are concept artists and we are hiring more. The art they create is original and I\u2019m very proud of what they do.<\/p>\n I was asked explicitly about concept art\u2026<\/p>\n