Amidst the recent wave of new interest in AI technology, many gaming companies are recently grappling with what this means for them and their businesses. CEO Andrew Wilson and his COO Laura Miele talked about the future of games, AI, and EA on the company’s Q4 earnings call, so let’s count EA among them.
Answering a question about AI, Wilson said the gaming industry will likely be “one of the biggest beneficiaries of AI.” He described the AI as a “reinforcement” for his team at EA and a way to allow players to create content in his EA world.
But he also addressed some AI concerns…not in the most encouraging way.
“The fear of labor migration is something we read and talk about a lot,” Wilson said. , and in the long run, there is a significant increase in workforce opportunities, and our hope is that AI represents the same opportunities, and we are working very closely together internally. , employees benefit in such a way and actually help them do more.”
Wilson also noted other concerns, noting that the issue of ownership of AI output could be an issue, given EA’s 40+ years of internal data and content that the AI may be able to learn from. I pointed out that this is not a concern for EA. He also noted his concerns about bad actors using AI, and that EA is working with governments and regulators, as well as the industry at large, to enact laws on AI to protect consumers. I promised to
At this point, Wilson threw up at Miele, repeating many of Wilson’s points.
Next, Miele thought about the many possibilities for using AI in live service games.
“So in game development, you would imagine the speed of content. Creative iteration would be greatly advantaged with really smart content tools. , real-time text-to-speech for players, and what that means is that when you think about supporting large-scale live games, it can be applied as we continue to grow these connected ecosystems, We will have very good image detection, problem detection and economic models, so we are quite optimistic, excited and inspired by this new wave of AI.”
EA executives also spoke about a potential crossover for future Apex Legends content, with Andrew Wilson saying that Microsoft’s potential acquisition of Activision Blizzard is “not very important” for EA. For that, IGN recently hosted AI Week, featuring articles and video content about emerging technologies.
Rebekah Valentine is IGN’s Senior Reporter. you can find her on her twitter @duck valentine.
