This matchmaking algorithm comes courtesy of OpenAI’s technology in the long-leaked and then officially announced Valve game.
A survey a year ago found that 31% of game developers were using some form of generative artificial intelligence. Since then, the percentage has likely increased, and you can certainly count Valve among them, as Fletcher Dunn, who has worked as an engineer at Valve for more than a decade, confirmed on Twitter that he uses ChatGPT.
“I’m going to keep posting my ChatGPT wins because this thing keeps blowing my mind and I think there are some skeptics out there who don’t get how amazing this tool is. A few days ago we changed Deadlock’s matchmaking hero selection to the Hungarian algorithm. I found it with ChatGPT.
Find me this thing that I don’t really know the right search terms for, but I’ll try to describe it’ is just a *killer* application. If it’s wrong or hallucinating (which sometimes happens), you’ll find out pretty quickly. I am kind of conflicted because it often replaces asking the question to another person in real life, or at least tweeting it to the virtual braintrust. I guess that’s good (the whole point?), but it’s just another way for computers to replace human interaction,” Dunn wrote.
I'm gonna keep posting my ChatGPT wins, because this thing keeps blowing my mind, and I think there are some skeptics who don't get how amazing this tool is.
A few days ago we switched Deadlock's matchmaking hero selection to the Hungarian algorithm. I found it using ChatGPT pic.twitter.com/dyLPDPyBJ8
— Fletcher Dunn (@ZPostFacto) October 2, 2024
In January, Steam implemented a policy requiring developers to disclose the use of generative AI when submitting their games, and that information is typically published on Steam. This includes Deadlock. Although the fact that ChatGPT was used as a search engine by Dunn doesn’t really make it a requirement, in the case of Valve’s policy it can be described as specific: “any type of content (art/code/sound/etc) created with the help of AI tools during development”.
So Valve can’t get away with using ChatGPT, but if it just makes work easier, that’s no problem.
