Hasbro CEO thinks AI in D&D is inevitable

The role of large-scale language models and image generators in the TTRPG community has been a touchy topic since widely accessible models have become increasingly available over the past few years. Fans generally want to keep those usages from being adopted as much as possible. Possible. But despite all the controversy it has faced, the owner of Dungeons & Dragons, the world’s biggest RPG, believes that sooner or later AI will show up in the Forgotten Realms and beyond. “We already use AI internally in development, mostly machine learning-based AI or proprietary AI rather than the ChatGPT approach. ,” Hasbro CEO Chris Cox recently told attendees at a Goldman Sachs event (via En World) about Hasbro’s broader approach to AI. The company went on a hiring spree last year for positions to help develop AI integrations, both overall and more specifically at Wizards of the Coast, publisher of D&D and Magic: The Gathering. So far, the studio’s digital efforts seem like a possibility. video game. But Cox believes AI will gain wider acceptance, not just from Hasbro and D&D, but from the players themselves. “But I’m probably more excited about the playful elements of the AI. If you look at the typical D&D player…they’re probably playing with about 30 or 40 people on a regular basis. “There’s not a single person out there who doesn’t use AI for either character development or story ideas,” Cox’s AI comments continued. “This is a clear signal that we need to embrace it. We need to do it carefully, we need to do it responsibly, and we need to make sure that creators are paid for their work. It needs to be clear that something is generated by an AI. But using AI to enable user-generated content, using AI to streamline new player introductions, “I think you’ll see the themes around using AI to do emergent storytelling, not just in our hardcore brands like D&D, but across multiple of our brands as well,” Cox said. Wizards of the Coast as a whole, at least so far, believes that Dungeons & Dragons is a game about human creativity and that it was created by real people to be played by real people. He has been keen to emphasize that it is a well-made game. . Last year, the company updated its policies for both Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering to explicitly prohibit the use of generative AI tools in any part of the creative process for official works of either game. The move embroiled Wizards in a series of embarrassing controversies related to generative AI. In the summer of 2023, the D&D 5th edition sourcebook “Glory of the Giants” featured several internal illustrations by regular D&D artist Ilya Shkipin, as he admitted that he used a generative AI program to create the illustrations. It has been replaced by an updated version of the book. Earlier this year, just weeks after Wizards updated its guidelines for the use of AI, a promotion for the then-upcoming Magic set Ravnica Remastered was accused of using AI imagery. Wizards initially defended the art, saying it was created by humans, but a few days later issued an apology and admitted that AI-generated elements were indeed used in the images. Want more news from io9? Find out when the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek movies will be released, what’s next for the DC Universe in film and TV, and the future of Doctor Who Check out all the things you should do.