With the new Xbox boss (Asha Sharma) coming from an AI background inside of Microsoft, there's been a lot of discussion about how AI will be integrated into her Xbox vision, which she chose to address in an interview with Variety.
Speaking to the outlet on Friday, Sharma advised that she has "no tolerance for bad AI" when it comes to game development, explaining that AI will continue to be part of the process, but "great stories are created by humans."
“AI has long been part of gaming and will continue to be,” Sharma said, noting that gaming needs new “growth engines,” but that “great stories are created by humans.”
This follows her statement on the Microsoft website which mentioned that AI will "evolve" and "influence" the future, but that the brand "will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop".
Here's what she said about this at the time:
"As monetization and AI evolve and influence this future, we will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop. Games are and always will be art, crafted by humans, and created with the most innovative technology provided by us. The next 25 years belong to the teams who dare to build something surprising, something no one else is willing to try, and have the patience to see it through."
Obviously, we know that Microsoft is championing AI in all sorts of ways these days, so we always expected it to play a major role in the brand's future, but we're encouraged to hear about the lack of tolerance for "bad AI".
As much as AI gets a bad rap (and often for understandable reasons), it can also play a very valid role in certain circumstances, so here's hoping it's used in all the right ways as we look ahead to the next 25 years of Xbox!