{"id":584012,"date":"2026-05-14T18:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T18:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/584012\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T18:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T18:04:09","slug":"sboxs-new-update-punishes-ai-slop-content-by-ranking-it-lower-to-discourage-users-from-making-everything-look-like-the-same-sht","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/584012\/","title":{"rendered":"s&box\u2019s New Update Punishes AI Slop Content By Ranking It Lower To Discourage Users From ‘Making Everything Look Like The Same Sh*t’"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Facepunch Studios\u2019 s&box, the game creation platform touted as a spiritual successor to Garry\u2019s Mod, launched on Steam at the end of April, it immediately earned itself a \u201cMixed\u201d rating on the platform<\/a>, with roughly 45 percent of its reviews being positive. Reviewers mostly took issue with the overwhelming prevalence of user-generated AI-slop that littered the game\u2019s discovery tab, a practice that Facepunch Studios is now \u201cactively discouraging\u201d with the release of s&box\u2019s latest update.<\/p>\n

Releasing a UGC game like s&box in the age of AI-generated tomfoolery was always going to be an uphill battle, but, based on the Facepunch Studios\u2019 numerous disparaging comments about its usage over the past two weeks, it\u2019s clear that even the devs have been somewhat blindsided by the never-ending torrent of slop that\u2019s making its way into the game. Update 26.05.13 is a clear step towards tackling the issue, however, as Garry Newman stated that the team has now implemented several new tools that will help \u201cidentify and discourage the AI Slop.\u201d<\/p>\n

We’re punishing AI thumbnails \u2013 if your game looks like generic slop, it’ll rank lower \ud83d\udcc9 We also talk about our Steam reviews \ud83e\udee0 Plus FSR3 upscaling, a big physics update, review tag filtering and way more.https:\/\/t.co\/hc1ysFxCAh<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/UasPVDXAJZ<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 s&box (@s8box) May 14, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cOur moderators can now mark packages as having AI thumbnails, which will reduce their prevalence in lists and searches,\u201d Newman revealed. \u201cI can understand why people would want to use AI to generate these thumbs, since it makes generating them easy and fast, it does have the massive downside of making everything look like the same shit. So we\u2019re actively discouraging it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, as many commenters on s&box\u2019s X post have already pointed out, discouraging the use of AI tools in the game is a treatment, whereas outright banning them would cure the issue altogether. However, as Newman previously stated in a comment provided to Rock Paper Shotgun<\/a>, while Facepunch Studios believes generative AI is a \u201cgrowing problem in every creative outlet,\u201d it simultaneously acknowledges \u201cthat it\u2019s a good learning tool and it\u2019s a good productivity tool.\u201d<\/p>\n

To that end, it would seem that banning its usage in s&box isn\u2019t on the cards for Facepunch Studios. At the very least, these new measures sound like a step in the right direction for s&box\u2019s future, although it\u2019s still hard to see how the game will ever manage to compete with its older brother, Garry\u2019s Mod, following such a rough launch.<\/p>\n