JoshsJunkDrawer

Big update to my blog detailing every game studio using AI. I added Crystal Dynamics, Owlcat, Pearl Abyss, Mistwalker, and three more. One of those is GenDesign, which claims not to use AI for its games, only "behind the scenes" work. I detailed why I included them in the post.

I also added a note about Kojima's horrible AI-generated Prada ad, and Crazy Taxi's revival using AI generated assets.

I feel more and more of me die with each update to this blog. I think what frustrates me the most is when companies try to hide it. Like, I hate that Sega are using genAI on Crazy Taxi, but at least they're honest about it. So many (including Pear Abyss which I also added today) tried to hide it and only admitted to it when they were called out. And what's worse, Steam, who have a mandatory AI disclosure policy, just don't care when that policy is violated. Makes you wonder what else Steam would let these companies get away with.

Months after saying I was going to, I finally quit YouTube Premium. In doing so, I realized I had become addicted to YouTube without realizing it. This has been an eye-opening blog to write. Wasn't expecting such an existential crisis from my website, but here I am!

I submitted my first short story to three magazines. After six months of waiting, it's been rejected twice (thrice maybe?) It's not a nice feeling being rejected, but its ultimately a good thing, in a way. I go through my thoughts as I process these rejections and what I'm going to do next.

Imagine being proud and ignorant enough to come out and admit to using AI to write for you. Incredible.

In two recent interviews, Andy Weir stated his support for AI. The first is in this interview with LA Review of Books, in which he says: "It’s only a matter of time before AI is able to write more entertaining, compelling, and exciting stories than any human."

"Train an AI on all the great works of literature, all the great books that people have loved, and it’ll figure out the commonalities and put together stories that are really awesome, in the same way that it can make art that’s really pretty when properly prompted."

He then said "I’m going to be out of my job eventually." When the interview challenges him on this, asking "isn’t a lot of what people enjoy about art the community experience and the person behind it? The human creator?" he responded:

"Take a tool like Photoshop. It can do all sorts of really cool things, but nobody wants to talk to the program. Nobody wants to talk to Google SketchUp about its process in rendering 3D models. People accept that there are tools that do this."

You can read the full interview here: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/andy-weir-project-hail-mary-novel-film-interview/

In a second interview with Tom Bilyeu on YouTube, he went even further. It's a long interview, but he says that AI can already make great art and that human graphic artists will go away and be replaced by people who can "refine" AI generated art, that AI is just a tool and that it shouldn't be ridiculed, and that AI will be creating whole movies in the future that's better than what humans can make.

You can watch that interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrdVpioZ5dU

Pretty abhorrent stuff, in my opinion. I enjoyed The Martian and Project Hail Mary, but coming out so in favor of art as to say it's going to be better than human created art is just gross. And to not care that it's "trained" on stealing work is ridiculous.

I've updated my long-running blog detailing every single video game studio, big and small, using generative AI. Today, I've added entries for Lutris' AI coding, Nvidia's Yassification filter, Unity's AI game generator, Valve testing AI tools, and a couple of indie studios.

I've also added more information about Koei-Tecmo using an AI chat engine in-game, Warhorse firing translators to use AI translation in the future, Krafton signing with a weapons manufacturer to make "physical AI" weapons, and Xbox's new AI-loving CEO.

As always, these entries and additions were fully researched and cited. Though I admit my annoyance (and frankly appalled attitude) is really on display in these new entries.

I used to run an indie gaming YouTube channel for six years, and was a games journalist for nine, which means I've picked up a lot of indie games over the years that I was never able to cover. Many of these I've forgotten I even owned, so I wanted to share some of them to make up for lost time, I suppose.

Foreigner is CJ Cherryh at her absolute best, a fantastic novel that's smartly written and with a well-realized world. It's got a couple of small hiccups, but this book shows why Cherryh is considered one of the foundational sci-fi writers of our time.

This is a (sadly small) list of studios and individuals who have vowed to not use genAI in their games. I can't say for sure it's every single studio because annoying articles don't get written about people who speak against AI, so I had to rely on social media.

I was frustrated by the lack of articles listing every video game studio confirmed to be using AI, so I made my own.

This is a list (that I will keep updated) with every video game publisher and developer confirmed to be using AI to make games.

I have far too many books I've bought years ago that have been sitting around. These include a bunch from CJ Cherryh, Terry Pratchett, and Colson Whitehead, and a few others.

These are the best books I read in 2025, not necessarily the ones that came out this year. There's a surprise appearance by a Greek goddess, a book looking a Japanese terrorist attack, CJ Cherryh's sci-fi/fantasy mash-up, and a few more.