Recently, There have been reports that Valve is starting to ban games that are utilizing A.I. created content. This came following several developers announcing that their games were blocked. Now, Valve has released statement on the matter. Valve said it believes AI will have a role to play in the future of game development. However, Valve notes that the “legal uncertainty” surrounding A.I. will continue to be a point of contention in the future as A.I. evolves.
“We are continuing to learn about AI, the ways it can be used in game development, and how to factor it in to our process for reviewing games submitted for distribution on Steam,” Valve said. “Our priority, as always, is to try to ship as many of the titles we receive as we can. The introduction of AI can sometimes make it harder to show a developer has sufficient rights in using AI to create assets, including images, text, and music. In particular, there is some legal uncertainty relating to data used to train AI models. It is the developer’s responsibility to make sure they have the appropriate rights to ship their game.”
Valve says that they are trying to discourage the use of A.I. generated content on its platform. They say they are currently working through how to incorporate A.I. in the existing Steam review policies, At this moment in time, it means that some of the games utilizing A.I. content will be blocked.
“Stated plainly, our review process is a reflection of current copyright law and policies, not an added layer of our opinion. As these laws and policies evolve over time, so will our process,” Valve said. “We welcome and encourage innovation, and AI technology is bound to create new and exciting experiences in gaming. While developers can use these AI technologies in their work with appropriate commercial licenses, they can not infringe on existing copyrights.”