PC game-download store GOG has come under scrutiny for using generative-AI in marketing artwork, then for seeming to sit on the fence in an answer about whether it will keep using the tech in the future.
The piece of artwork was a banner advertising a 2026 sale, which a GOG forum user, presumed to be a GOG artist, spoke out about and confirmed was created with AI. This caused a stink and so gen-AI use was one of the topics GOG was immediately questioned about during an Ask Me Anything on Reddit yesterday.
Managing director Maciej Gołębiewski – when asked about the negative reaction and whether GOG would move away from gen-AI use in the future – replied: “We’re not planning on making absolute statements in either direction. AI tools are one of many technologies we test and try out, and in some contexts it genuinely helps us push the company (and the mission) forward.
“What we will change, though, is how and where those tools are used; we understand that using new technology doesn’t mean skipping human judgment.” His answer did nothing to cool or calm the crowd.
I followed this response up with GOG and Gołębiewski this morning but was told GOG wouldn’t elaborate on what had been said. However, I did speak to Gołębiewski at length in January, in an interview about GOG’s private acquisition, and gen-AI was one of the topics we broached.
“Every technology at some point finds its way to be put to good use”
Gołębiewski told me at the time: “We are not using it [gen-AI] as of right now, but we’ve seen instances where communities have used the AI or neural network to analyse all of the code that is available for a game – all of the repositories or the documentation that’s available for a game – with an aim of making it run better or maybe making it run on a different operating system or different hardware. AI is pretty good at absorbing the context and then guessing some action points based on that context.
“We haven’t done this in this form,” he added, “but I’m sure that at some point the application of AI – not necessarily generative AI in terms of artworks or code or whatever – will be found for how this can be used to advance game preservation. Every technology at some point finds its way to be put to good use. It’s just the road to that is usually windy, shaky, however you might call it. So we haven’t yet, but I’m not saying we won’t do it in the future. If this can be used to advance our mission, then we will do it.”
GOG’s founding mission – and continuing mission – is restoring and preserving classic games, whether they be old classics or more modern classics, and ensuring they can be played in their best form into the future without being locked behind DRM. This often requires a lot of work on GOG’s end, hence the attraction of AI in helping alleviate some of that.
But GOG is a store that also sells newer games, both indie and bigger games, and that prides itself on a selective approach, and on being close to its audience and receptive to them. GOG earned plenty of respect by stocking provocative indie horror game Horses last year, when other stores, like Epic and Steam, wouldn’t. “We as a company are always ready to take a stand on the right values,” Maciej Gołębiewski said to me about making that decision. It’s a statement that seems to grate against what it’s saying now about gen-AI.
GOG recently became a private company after having spent its entire existence as part of CD Projekt – the house of The Witcher games and Cyberpunk 2077. And one of the positive potential ramifications of this is not being burdened by that huge game-making business, and therefore being more agile and able to take risks, new owner Michał Kiciński explained to me recently. I wonder if this moment will be a telling one in the company’s new era.
