The director of exploration-focused strategy game Stellaris, Stephen "Eladrin" Muray, defended the title's use of artificial intelligence in its latest DLC to create non-human voices, saying that it is "ethical."
The sci-fi title first launched in 2016 and has since followed the usual Paradox Interactive post-launch cycle of regular tweaking as well as substantial premium DLC expansions. The most recent one of these is The Machine Age which focuses on "synthetic ascension" and promises eternal life among the stars.
Stellaris Director Defends Use of AI
(Photo : Paradox / Screenshot taken from official website)
The latest DLC for the game adds a lot of new elements to the machine side of the game alongside a synth space queen who says she is going to get us all there. The store page for Stellaris' latest content package lays out all of its inclusions and drops a disclaimer at the end.
It read that the team behind the DLC employed generative AI technologies during the creation of some assets. It added that this typically involves the ideation of content and visual reference material, noting that they represent a minor component of the overall development, according to PCGamer.
Many players were undoubtedly surprised by what they had seen in the DLC's store page and the revelation that AI was used to create voices raised a few eyebrows. However, the game's director went on to explain the situation.
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Muray said that the team has been using AI to help with the production of the Machine Age DLC and he addressed comments in Steam discussions before taking to the game's subreddit. In the latter, he also tried to reassure fans of the game.
He said that the AI voice generation tools that they used on Stellaris were only there to make sure that the voice actors they had to build up the models received royalties for every line that they created.
Discussing the Ethical Use of Generative AI
The game director also further clarified that the developers of Stellaris did not use any AI-generated artwork found in the final expansion or for making concept art. He reassured them that they have "awesome concept artists on staff for that," said Rock Paper Shotgun.
On the other hand, he also acknowledged that "a couple" of AI-generated images might have become part of the team's mood boards or similar during the development process.
He said that personally, he uses image generation tools to make basic sketches of things that the System Designers and he were thinking of.
The game director also tried to explain the Steam disclaimer by saying that the team used AI-generated text to "break writer's block" by asking for suggestions for what a player could find inside a mysterious box and using those prompts as "inspiration."
The situation comes as Stellaris' recent reviews on Steam have been "mixed" despite enjoying a very positive overall score of 87 from more than 100,000 reviews.
Looking into the matter further shows that the use of AI appears to have a significant effect on the recent negative feedback that fans have been expressing towards the sci-fi strategy game, according to 80lv.
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