EA Wants to Make Generative AI One of The Cornerstones of Its Business Strategy
EA wants generative AI to be one of the cornerstones of the company's business. This „creativity” didn't arouse enthusiasm.
Andrew Wilson, the CEO of Electronic Arts, has been emphasizing for a while that his company prioritizes the use of AI in game development. The latest example of this came during an investor presentation where Wilsons stated that generative AI is one of the foundations of EA’s business.
Cardboard creativity
This time, they didn't limit themselves to just words. A concept of how such a solution could be implemented was shown. In the video, the player created a level in the game by entering only prompts and then setting the rules for a multiplayer match in the same way.
The presentation wasn't particularly impressive, which is also evident from the reactions of people commenting on the video shared by Geoff Keighley. First of all, it was just a pre-rendered video. EA apparently doesn't currently have a functioning version of such technology to demonstrate to a wide audience. It's also amusing that the whole "generated" level was constructed from cardboard boxes, which was ironic given Electronic Arts' claims about how AI is meant to encourage player creativity.
Unusual use of NPCs from games
EA also wants to use AI to increase the range of character interactions in games. This is nothing new (many companies are working on such solutions), but Electronic Arts wants to go further and make NPCs accompany us outside of games as well. For instance, helping with shopping or replacing us in a video call with our parents when they ask for help with a computer problem (which is a rather strange idea).
- Andrew Wilson's job is to get investors excited. Therefore, his words about how generative AI is already one of the foundations of EA shouldn't be taken entirely seriously.
- Many people remember Wilson's claim just three years ago that "NFT and blockchain games are part of the future of the industry," which turned out to be complete nonsense.
Of course, the truth is that AI is already being used by EA in game development. Previously, Wilson used the example that FIFA 23 featured 12 animation cycles that determined how players moved around the field (a cycle consists of a sequence of character poses that collectively form a specific movement). In EA Sports FC 24, there are as many as 1,200 of these animations, all developed by artificial intelligence.
AI will likely be used sooner or later to enable EA game players to partially create new content. The company's presentation shows, however, that this is unlikely to happen anytime soon, and Wilson's words about how generative AI is already the foundation of the company are also likely greatly exaggerated.
