While the use of AI-generated assets in gaming has sparked debate within the industry, its adoption will only increase. High on Life from Squanch Games has emerged as a notable example, incorporating AI-generated art for in-game posters and employing AI voice acting. Similarly, in the entertainment realm, Marvel’s Secret Invasion TV show stands out for its recent use of entirely AI-generated opening credits.
And now, gaming giants Valve Software, which acts as gatekeepers to PC titles on its Steam Store, has taken a bold stance on the use of AI-generated assets in games according to a Reddit post from three weeks ago which has gone viral after a tweet from former game designer Simon Carless.
PSA: Valve has been quietly banning newly submitted Steam games using AI-created art assets – if submitters can't prove they have rights for the assets used to train the algorithms: https://t.co/WhWpJpaFjl pic.twitter.com/5KhzJESYxk
— Simon Carless (@simoncarless) June 29, 2023
In a post on the /aigamedev subreddit, a developer shared their experience of Valve rejecting their game due to the inclusion of AI-generated art assets.
Valve’s message reads, “After reviewing, we have identified intellectual property in [Game Name Here] which appears to belong to one or more third parties. In particular, [Game Name Here] contains art assets generated by artificial intelligence that appears to be relying on copyrighted material owned by third parties. As the legal ownership of such AI-generated art is unclear, we cannot ship your game while it contains these AI-generated assets, unless you can affirmatively confirm that you own the rights to all of the IP used in the data set that trained the AI to create the assets in your game.
“We are failing your build and will give you one (1) opportunity to remove all content that you do not have the rights to from your build. If you fail to remove all such content, we will not be able to ship your game on Steam, and this app will be banned.”
Uncertainty and clarity
The dev went on to say that he, “Improved” the AI-generated pieces by hand so they would no longer be AI-generated, but the attempt was futile as Valve rejected the request afterwards.
If this policy indeed exists – without any form of official announcement from Steam – it could mark a significant milestone in the use of AI for creative purposes within the video game industry. The decision has also garnered praise from numerous game developers and artists.
However, AI enthusiasts and users of the nascent technology believe that Steam is opposing an imminent trend, raising questions on how game reviewers can easily identify AI-generated assets.
The copyright issues in the use of generative AI in video games are currently unclear. It’s common knowledge that generative AI is trained on numerous images, including those from artists and often without their permission. However, the resulting products cannot be directly linked to specific artists or images, unless copyrighted characters are involved.
Valve has recognised this ambiguity and has decided not to accept games that use AI assets, or at least those that they can easily identify.
We’ve contacted Valve for more information on how the Steam owner plans to handle games with AI-generated assets moving forward.
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
