Amazon Games boss claims that AI has nothing to do with taking away work from actors, because 'for gaming, we don't have acting'.

Amazon Games CEO Christoph Hartmann spoke to IGN in an interview this week. He said a few interesting things. He said that the Lord of the Rings MMO is "still early in development" and commented on the "high bar" for a new Tomb Raider video game. His most shocking statement was made on the topic of generative AI being used in the games industry. He claimed that "for games, there is no acting".

Hartmann, as noted by GamesRadar was asked for his thoughts on the current state of the games industry. He responded that he hoped generative AI could "shorten" the life cycle of game development. "I think that game development takes too long, about five years per game," said Hartmann. "It means that everything will be luck and hopefully AI can help us streamline processes so that hand-done works will go quickly."

All of these are true statements, but the extent to which AI can help solve the problem is highly debated. IGN responded by asking Hartmann if he was aware of the SAGAFTRA voice actors strike that was called last week for "fair compensation" and the right to informed consent regarding the AI use of the faces, voices, and bodies of the actors, according to SAGAFTRA national executive Director Duncan Crabtree Ireland.

Hartmann appeared to be aware of the sensitive nature of this subject. "I must be careful," he said. "Because I don't wish to get involved in it. We are a large company and we have to deal all these organisations." He then went on to say that "When we discuss AI, it's not about taking away work from anyone. It's more about helping us come up with new gameplay ideas." We don't have much acting in games... The majority of our team is in programming, and that won't change because it's all about innovation.

SAG-AFTRA’s 2,500 video game actors and the 160,000 SAG-AFTRA Members who refused to work on games produced by major developers to support those performers will be shocked to learn that video games do not have acting. Acting has been a part of the video game industry for many years and is now more important than ever. The performances in games like Baldur's Gate, The Last of Us and Final Fantasy 16 (which will be coming to PC soon), elevate the stories told by these games. Baldur's Gate 3 has been a pioneer in the relationship between narrative, acting, and game design. You could even call it innovative.

Hartmann then went on to talk about other areas in which he believes AI will "help" the game development. He says that this is mainly "the boring bits" such as localisation. "It will just make us translate our game into more languages." It's great for gamers because there are countries where not everyone speaks perfect English, and they would love [it] to be in their local language. While AI can provide a broad range of accurate translations quickly it's important to note that localisation is much more involved than, for instance, learning how to say "Which direction to the library?" In French. Translation involves a lot more nuanced narratives and dialogues, including jokes and references with cultural and situational contexts that require a deep understanding of both languages.

Hartmann concluded by saying that "I do not believe any technology will be able replace human creativity and originality" because "I do not think it will translate these unique things into new ideas." It is true that generative artificial intelligence cannot come up with new ideas. It's also true that everyone has ideas. What separates great art from good ideas is talent and hardwork, not asking a machine do the hard work. SAG-AFTRA, incidentally wants to fairly compensate its members for this.