Valve engineers used ChatGPT in order to create a new matchmaking algorithm that is now included in Deadlock.

A survey conducted a little over a year ago revealed that 31% of developers were already using generative artificial intelligence in some form. I'd bet that the percentage has increased since then.

We know Valve uses it: Fletcher Dunn is a Valve engineer who has been with the company for over a decade. He's been posting his "ChatGPT victories" on X and said today that OpenAI’s large language model was an "amazing tool."

Dunn uses ChatGPT more or less as an advanced search tool. In a recent interaction, he described a hypothetical algorithm he wished to use in Valve's MOBA shooter, Deadlock. He received an accurate recommendation of a real algorithm that matched his specifications. Dunn says that the algorithm ChatGPT suggested is now being used for Deadlock matchmaking.

"I'm going to keep posting my ChatGPT victories, because this thing is blowing my mind and I think some skeptics don't understand how amazing this tool really is," he wrote. "A few weeks ago, we switched Deadlock’s matchmaking algorithm to the Hungarian one. I found it using ChatGPT."

Dunn admits that he would have been able to find the same answer if he had used the right Google search term, but says he didn't need to because ChatGPT returned the exact information he was seeking even though his description of it was vague.

"Find me that thing I don't know the right search term for, but I'll try to describe" is just a *killer* application," he replied to another poster. "If the app is wrong or hallucinates, you'll know pretty quickly."

This use of ChatGPT confirms what I suspected back in January when I covered the survey: that scattered instances of generative artificial intelligence being used to create videogame art, or replace voice actors, are really just the tip of iceberg. I think that developers are mostly using generative AI indirectly, for example, by using ChatGPT to write code or as an administrative tool or by using image creators during the concept stage.

Steam added a rule in January that developers must disclose the use of generative AI when they submit their game. The majority of this information is displayed on store pages. Deadlock is the only Valve game that does not feature Steam generative artificial intelligence disclosures. ChatGPT's use as a natural-language search engine is not something that Valve would consider to be a disclosure, even though its rules require developers to disclose "any content (art/code/sound/etc.) created using AI tools during development."

Dunn isn't certain whether ChatGPT will continue to be as useful as it is now. Early September, Dunn predicted that we were in a "Golden Age of ChatGPT" and that LLM's abilities would decline as training data was lost due to copyright challenges or became contaminated by its own output. Dunn says he keeps ChatGPT permanently open in a tab of Chrome.

"I am a little conflicted, because it often replaces asking the question IRL to another person or at least tweeting out to the virtual mindtrust," he said. "I suppose this is good" (the point? But it's another way computers can replace human interaction.

OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, has raised a staggering $6.6 billion as part of a new round of funding. As reported by AP, it is now focusing on profitability. The company claims its new ChatGPT model o1 is capable of "reasoning through" problems.