Steam's New Generative AI Policy: Analysis & Predictions
Also featuring a brief look at 3 AI-powered mystery games!
Happy Mystery Monday!
Last Tuesday, Valve announced a new policy allowing games using generative AI on the Steam store.
Developers are now required to disclose their game's use of generative AI, in a similar way to how developers are required to disclose mature content.
These disclosures cover two distinct types of generative AI:
Pre-generated content, created using AI tools during development, must not include illegal or infringing content. Valve states they will evaluate all AI generated output the same way they would evaluate non-AI generated content.
Live-generated content, created using AI while playing the game. Developers also must disclose any guardrails they are putting on live-generated content to ensure the AI does not generate illegal content.
Valve is also releasing a system for players to report illegal content inside games that contain live-generated content.
The only AI games that Valve will not allow are games featuring live-generated adult-only sexual content.
Why would Valve do this?
This is pure speculation, but I believe 3 things influenced Valve's decision:
1. Legal Precedent
Valve's announcement comes two months after almost all claims in the lawsuit against major AI companies were dismissed.
Judge William Orrick’s ruling dismissed the claims regarding AI output, but the key claim regarding the use of copyrighted images in AI training is still ongoing.
"Even Stability recognizes that determination of the truth of these allegations – whether copying in violation of the Copyright Act occurred in the context of training Stable Diffusion or occurs when Stable Diffusion is run – cannot be resolved at this juncture," Orrick said.
As the plaintiffs are allowed to amend their filings to provide more specifics, it may be a while before any real conclusion is reached.
That said, the ruling was still a major blow to anti-AI activists.
(For those interested, you can read the full court document here.)
This ruling also seems highly relevant, given that Valve’s new policy specifically referenced the infringing of AI outputs — which were the claims that were just dismissed.
I suspect that Valve previously banned all generative AI games not because they are specifically anti-AI, but because they did not want to be held liable for any potential legal claims, which is understandable.
Now that at least one court ruling has been made in favor of AI — including more specific criteria for proving copyright infringement — Valve (and other companies) likely have a better idea of how to proceed.
2. AI-Powered Game Engines
Unity has continued integrating generative AI technology into their game engine.
As I mentioned in my post covering the Runtime Fee situation, I suspect that Unity is going all-in with the development of AI and blockchain features, potentially at the cost of losing the many independent developers who have an aversion toward those technologies.
More tools will continue to become available for developers, and as more of those tools become directly integrated into the game development process, it may become impossible to enforce a “blanket ban” on all generative AI content.
For example, how could Valve possibly know whether you used GitHub Copilot to write your game’s code, without reverse-engineering your game executable?
Also, the sheer quantity of games produced with AI in any capacity would force Valve to simply ban all Unity games as a precautionary measure, which would completely destroy a massive chunk of revenue.
Clearly, that is not going to happen.
3. Storefront Competition
In September of last year, Steam banned a game from its store for integrating the ChatGPT API.
The CEO of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, responded by saying "Put it on the Epic Games Store. We don’t ban games for using new technologies."
(And remember, Tim Sweeney is the creator of the Unreal Engine, too — whether it’s Unity or Unreal, generative AI will be embraced.)
Similarly, I have yet to see any official statement from itch.io one way or another, but I have seen many games featuring AI-generated content (and asset packs selling AI-generated content) on their platform.
Again, Steam would be losing out on more revenue by giving up these games to their competitors, so in order to keep these games on Steam, they would need to create some kind of policy at some point.
And so, now we have one.
AI-Powered Mystery Games
Let's say you're searching for games featuring generative AI — or maybe you want to actively avoid them.
Using SteamDB, you can view a (growing) list of games on Steam that have implemented the new AI-generated content disclaimer.
There aren't too many yet, but I expect this list to grow a lot in the year ahead.
Also, it is up to each developer to honestly put forward a disclaimer, so there may be many games using generative AI that are secretly hiding from Valve.
Here are three upcoming mystery games that make use of generative AI:
1. Vaudeville (Early Access)
Vaudeville is a groundbreaking, narrative-driven detective game that immerses you in the heart of Europe, in a bustling city renowned for its captivating charm. As the famed private investigator, Detective Martini, use your wit and intuition to uncover the intricate secrets lurking within this city's vibrant streets and shadowy corners.
In Vaudeville, you're thrown into a complex web of murder, deceit, and intrigue. And the innovation doesn't stop there.
Vaudeville uses advanced AI technology to create dialogues in real-time. You can interact with the city's intriguing inhabitants using natural language, either by typing or talking into the microphone. Every conversation, every interaction, is unique to your game, offering an unrivalled level of immersion.
2. Hawaii Detective: Killing of a Krypto King
When crypto billionaire Hamish McNeil is reported to have vanished out at sea during a yacht party off the coast of Oahu, it’s considered an unfortunate, yet highly unlikely, accident. However, when his body turns up on Waikiki beach the next day with very strange markings on his legs and back it’s immediately clear that the Crypto King was not a victim of the high seas but instead of a gruesome and premeditated murder.
"Hawaii Detective: Killing of a Krypto King" is a Detective Mystery Visual Novel and Yuri Dating Sim where you play as Detective Laura Ko as she interrogates suspects, investigates clues and follows leads to determine who killed the Glaswegian Krypto King, and maybe even find some lesbian romance along the way.
3. Detective Butler and the King of Hearts
Detective Butler and the King of Hearts is a linear murder mystery visual novel, with emphasis on a fast-paced, character-driven narrative. The primary gameplay is within your own mind as you try and solve the mysteries yourself. The game will provide you with Case Notes and Lecture Notes to help you keep track of the characters, clues, and other important information.
Three years after the events of Detective Butler: Maiden Voyage Murder, Gilligan and Butler learn about a Detection Club at Gilligan's university. At the same time, a serial killer has been targeting the female students, each victim's heart ripped out from a gaping wound. As none of the hearts have been found -- apparently stolen -- the killer has been nicknamed "The King of Hearts."
My thoughts on Generative AI
Yes, you may have noticed that the last item on that list — Detective Butler — is my own game!
I am a computer scientist, and I've always been interested in learning (and using) cutting-edge technology.
When I was in university, I learned everything I could about AI, even building an AI to play chess for a homework assignment.
Back then, I often thought about the potential of AI in visual novels, and how interesting — but difficult — it would be to produce text that generated in response to a player’s input.
You can even see, on a very old GitHub repository of mine, I was trying to accomplish the same goal as Stable Diffusion (but it didn’t get very far before I gave up).
And I want to make it clear that, after having multiple conversations with three artist friends of mine, I fully understand the anti-AI sentiment.
However, I firmly believe that being able to disagree with each other, and debate each other in a constructive way, is a fundamental part of a good community (and society at large).
Some groups may choose to ban AI-related discussion altogether, but if I hadn't talked with those who disagreed with me, I wouldn't have understood their points of view (and integrated them into my own).
After speaking with them, I made it clear that instead of just typing in a prompt to generate images, I would be drawing the images from scratch, and then I would use AI to make enhancements to my drawings.
All three artists independently agreed that there was nothing wrong with this approach — and they were even excited to see what would come of it.
My point here is that AI doesn’t have to be such a divisive issue.
Once the legal and ethical implications of generative AI are settled in court, I think the benefits of integrating AI into your workflow (rather than replacing your workflow) will be clear.
It won’t be a magic bullet, and you’ll still need to use your own human creativity to make a product that people will actually enjoy.
Saying that I am “pro-AI” would be an oversimplification of my stance, but it is much more accurate than saying that I am anti-AI.
I would say that I am pro-truth, and I am simply curious to know the truth of AI.
I want to know how to use it to my advantage, and I want to know how to survive it.
Whether it is used for good or evil, like all other software, AI is just a tool.
There is no such thing as being replaced by AI — only being replaced by someone who knows how to use AI.
So, the best thing you can do is adapt and integrate those AI skills into your workflow.
The potential for live-generated content actually catches my interest far more than pre-generated assets, because it enables developers to create games that truly could have never been made before.
Vaudeville has an exciting premise with tons of potential, but the technology just isn't quite there yet to make a flawless detective experience.
Detective games actually seem to be one of the most realistic use-cases for live-generated AI content.
The endless commission of crimes, the innumerable clues, and the never-ending questioning of witnesses and suspects can all be facilitated using modern AI.
However, the biggest potential flaw is whether any of those infinite things have a theme or meaning that makes them all worth solving in the first place.
That is the eternal tradeoff between story and puzzle.
What does the future hold?
Many interesting questions arise from Steam's new policy.
How enforceable is this new policy, really?
How easily can Steam determine whether or not an asset is illegal or infringing, and what process do they use to make this determination?
What happens to "false positive" games that are alleged to use AI when they truly do not?
How will Steam handle the rapid creation of content using AI?
How will we sift through “shovelware” produced at levels never seen before?
Will every game suffer from "too much AI" — where live-generated content is so prominent that every game ends up feeling exactly the same?
Will AI finally learn how to draw hands?
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