Valve has amended its mandate that developers who utilize AI be required to post notices on their games’ Steam pages. The change reflects a more narrow definition of what’s worth mentioning, honing in on certain deployments whilst effectively nullifying the potential relevance of others.
The change comes loud and clear via Valve’s own developer disclosure form, meaning devs see the page front-and-center when dealing with Steam for game launches.
As spotted by Simon Carless, the founder of GameDiscoverCo – and thereafter reported on over at the excellent GameDeveloper.com, Valve has clarified that devs needn’t count “AI powered tools” when contemplating whether they need to include a disclaimer. In other words, code-aiding software and such is totally exempt.
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The difference is structural.
On the other hand, generative AI is, of course, instant grounds for audience notification. As the disclosure form phrases it, “AI to generate content for the game.” Notably, this also pertains to marketing materials, even the storefront page itself. Furthermore, “AI content generated during gameplay” still fits the bill, including “images, audio, text and other content.”
It’s up to us as individuals to parse how we feel about this stuff, but if your hardline stands against any AI usage whatsoever, you’ll no longer be made aware of it – if, indeed, you ever were. How many times have games like Call of Duty been called out (heh) after the fact? We’ll see where this all goes, but I suppose it’s worth mentioning for those who aren’t familiar: those “AI powered tools” are incredibly common at this point. In my view, they’re a world apart from generative AI, but again, you do you.
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