Humble Games may limit the use of AI in future publishing contracts
unpacking And Stray gods Publisher Humble Games is aware of the potential legal issues posed by developers who choose to use generative AI tools like ChatGPT during production.
Speaking to Game Developer at Gamescom 2023, Humble EVP and General Manager Alan Patmore said the publisher is proactively putting processes and procedures in place to ensure it doesn’t find itself in a situation where it encounters copyright issues and other legal challenges due to its use of AI .
Patmore said the company hadn’t received any offers where the use of AI was an issue, but thinks it’s prudent to be proactive rather than reactive.
“It will probably be part of the contractual process where [developers] must state that they do not use AI to retrieve data [and create assets]’ Patmore said.
“I think part of that is looking at how we’re evaluating the toolsets that developers are using, so we don’t get into a situation where a tool has pulled data and suddenly there’s a lot of assets that a developer isn’t uses.” “I don’t have the rights to use it in my game. From a development perspective, it’s about putting processes in place to prove ownership.”
AI and property
Speaking more broadly about the use of AI in game development, Patmore differentiated between generative systems like ChatGPT — which were trained using data from around the web, which raised concerns about who owns the results they produce — and built-in AI-powered tools engines like Unreal Engine 5.
“I’m looking at AI while we’re back in the days of the Wild West and figuring out what it can unleash. I think there’s a lot of potential from a content creation perspective, but we need to address the modality issues,” he added. For Patmore, AI tools that enable “creation of unique content” pose no problem, but others that raise ownership questions should be viewed with skepticism.
During Gamescom, Patmore also detailed how Humble Games plans to expand into first-party development and hinted that studio acquisitions are a possibility. For more on this, check out our in-depth interview with the Humble boss.
