Bethesda Game Studios lead Todd Howard has confirmed that Bethesda is being “incredibly cautious” around the use of AI for The Elder Scrolls 6 and future games such as an eventual Fallout 5.
As well as confirming that Bethesda is now “able to play” The Elder Scrolls 6, which is made in a newly overhauled Creation Engine 3, Howard recently discussed the prominence of AI in game development in an interview with The Kinda Funny Gamescast.
In the interview, Howard explained that Bethesda is not jumping all-in on AI, although the studio “can’t ignore” the technology outright. While the studio is not using the technology for creative purposes, at least for now, the technology may be used
“For us, we’re being incredibly cautious,” Howard said. “[We’re] kind of viewing [it] as a tool, like an analyst, to look at the data in our games. We’re not using it to generate anything. I think there’s an element of artistic intention that is essential to what we do and what others do.”
Howard explained that even outside of game development, “human intention is what makes things special”, adding “and that’s where we want to be”. However, the iconic game director confirmed that Bethesda will be using some forms of AI, albeit this will assist in “big data tasks”.
“You can’t ignore it, in terms of it’s coming, it’s changing, every few months there’s a new model, particularly in the tech side with code or productivity or other things,” Howard said. “I would just say we’re looking at that stuff, we’re not fully ignoring it, because where it can help us get better at some big data tasks that just take us a lot of time, that we just wish were done now, so we can move on to the creative stuff, that’s kinda where our heads are.”
Howard said that AI “has a lot of us today”, particularly in “long-term player analysis” that will help the studio. However, at least for now, AI will not be a major part of development for titles at Bethesda Game Studios.
AI in the games industry, and even outside of the games industry, has been a major topic of conversation. Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian Studios recently banned the use of Generative AI for further development of Divinity following fan backlash, and Games Workshop barred the use of GenAI tools to “protect human workers”.
In a recent interview with us at FRVR, former Warhammer designer Jervis Johnson dubbed AI the “asbestos of the internet”, adding “we’re going to be spending decades getting this stuff out again after we’ve used it a lot and found out its actually a bit rubbish.”
