According to a former Id Software employee, John Carmack could have essentially created Skynet if generative artificial intelligence had been available in the 1990s.

Generative AI is one of the most controversial topics in the industry for good reason. It drove up hardware prices and put people out of work. While there were a few fairly mundane and seemingly useful applications, the sheer madness surrounding its use is hard to escape. There was also the bad PR stemming from our collective exhaustion when executives promised The Matrix or something similar. This topic arose during a conversation with Tim Willits, the creative director at Saber Interactive who was also a co-owner of id Software from 1995 to 2019.

We are cynical because we constantly see money being burned and data centers being built, even though the technology doesn’t seem to serve any purpose other than creating unnecessary work. When it takes center stage, the result is boring voice acting, a terrible script, and aimless, forgettable graphics, even as the technology becomes more sophisticated. If Willits’s “AI-powered Half-Life 2” becomes a reality, we’ll humbly eat an artificially generated hat. Many have tried this before and failed; each time, the hat seems to get smaller. Still, according to Willits, id Software probably would have used generative AI if it had existed back then—after all, the studio has always been at the cutting edge. To be fair to Willits, he seems to share our view that the game must prove that generative AI can transform the industry itself rather than rely on some CEO’s promises.

“As most people know, we are experimenting with AI for future games. It’s not here right now, but we announced Rideshare Simulator, and I want to clear up some misconceptions. We’re going to use AI for the passengers so that we can deliver new stories. This is only possible if we use AI for that purpose. It’s an experiment. At Saber, we want to figure out how to use this technology, so we’re starting small to learn. Like everyone else, we’re just trying to figure this out. However, there is no generative AI in our major titles. There’s none in Hellraiser, Turok, or Stuntman. We want to experiment. I believe that some game development company will create a game that uses AI in such an amazing way that everyone will say, “That’s it! That’s what we need to do!” Someone needs to create the “Half-Life 2 of AI,” something so amazing that it launches a killer app.

Look at what id Software has done. When we released Quake III Arena in 1999, it required a graphics card, and we received a lot of hate for that. People said we were going to ruin the industry. Nobody was going to spend $100 on a graphics card. It was the dumbest thing anyone had ever done. If it had been available back in the day, I know for sure that John Carmack would have been making Skynet or something. The games will speak for themselves. Even in our experiment with Rideshare, I encourage people to check it out and play it themselves when it comes out. They might say, “Oh, this is cool! I like this.” But what if they don’t like it? Fine. The games will speak for themselves,” Willits told PCGamer at Gamescom.

Hopefully, time will prove one side or the other right.

Source: PCGamer