Bethesda’s Todd Howard has shared his thoughts on the use of AI in video games, calling it a “tool” but one that can’t replace human intention.
Howard sat down with Eurogamer’s social producer Mat Jones at an event for the second season of Fallout earlier this week. While much of the discussion focused on the Amazon series, Mat took the chance to ask Howard about AI, which remains a hotly debated topic within the industry.
“I view it as a tool,” Howard told Mat. “Creative intention comes from human artists, number one.
“But, I think we look at it as a tool for, is there a way we can use it to help us go through some iterations that we do ourselves faster. Not in generating things, but we are always working on our toolset for how we build our worlds or check things.
“I think if you go back 10 years ago, that version of Photoshop, you wouldn’t want to go back to that version of Photoshop.”
“That’s our view on it,” the Bethesda head closed. “But we want to protect the artistry. The human intention of it is what makes our stuff special.”
Howard’s words come as more and more developers are dipping their toes – or at times their whole foot – into the technology. AI has been used across all levels of game development, such as NPCs like those in the recently-released Where Winds Meet.
Last year, a report by Unity claimed 62 percent of studios using its tools used AI at some point during game development. In this report, Unity noted animation was the top use case. A GDC survey from that same year, meanwhile, reported that around a third of industry workers reported using AI tools already. In 2025, that number is likely to be higher, and a recent Tokyo Games Show survey reported over half of Japanese game companies are using AI in development.
Reports of AI use are continuing to make headlines as we march confidently towards the end of the year. Just this afternoon, publisher Running with Scissors cancelled upcoming game Postal: Bullet Paradise – a co-op “bullet-heaven” first-person shooter from developer Goonswarm Games – after feedback to the reveal two days ago said much of the game appeared to have been made using generative AI.
Last month meanwhile, Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney said “AI will be involved in nearly all future production”, so having Steam games disclose whether they were built with AI makes about as much sense as telling us what kind of shampoo the developers use.
