EA's AI comments have us worried for the publisher
After announcing mass layoffs, Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson has gamers worried as he talks about a potential future that will focus heavily on AI technology instead of a human workforce.
08th Mar 2024 11:28
Images via Maxis | Tri-Star Pictures
EA's AI comments have us worried for the publisher
After announcing mass layoffs, Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson has gamers worried as he talks about a potential future that will focus heavily on AI technology instead of a human workforce.
08th Mar 2024 11:28
Images via Maxis | Tri-Star Pictures
James Cameron warned us with Terminator...the robots are coming for us. It starts slowly, but soon, we could be living in a nuclear apocalypse where rampaging robots have driven the human race to extinction. This is obviously an exaggeration, but as AI takes over the gaming space, it sometimes feels this way.
From AI artwork potentially putting artists out of a job to voice actors also worrying about their future, some studios are even looking at AI to develop future titles. It's a concerning trend, and when it comes to one of the biggest publishers around, it looks like it's eyeing an AI-reliant future. No prizes for guessing who.
EA boss has us worried about AI
In the wake of EA announcing 670 job losses and a 5% workforce cut, now might be time for EA CEO Andrew Wilson to lie low. Instead, he's gone on a bizarre rampage about the benefits of AI and how he sees the gaming giant growing by seemingly swapping its humans for robots.
Speaking to Morgan Stanley (via TechRaptor), Wilson unveiled his vision for an automated future where AI is king and real humans are mere slaves to it. As well as calling EA "AI-native," he says the company is now "embracing [generative AI] deeply." Wilson claims that EA is only the size it is because of AI.
As for what's next, Wilson mused that AI will save time and money...but at what cost? "The development cycle is very iterative, and incredibly time consuming, which is why games are now taking six and seven years to build, as they've gotten bigger and deeper," said Wilson.
He continued, "So the first thing for us is how do we make that more efficient?" Painting a grim future for the publisher's workforce, Wilson added, "About 60% of all of our development processes have high feasibility to be positively impacted by generative AI." By the sounds of it, those 670 job losses could be the tip of the iceberg.
Come on EA, read the room
Although Wilson has us concerned, he's promoting the time benefits of AI: "So we build a stadium in one of our sports games, that would typically take us six months. This past year, it took us six weeks. It's not unnatural for us to believe that in the coming years it will take us six days."
Wilson's plan for the future involves three billion players "creating personal content and expanding and enhancing the universes that we create." He concluded, "All of a sudden, we are the beneficiaries of platform economics… that's a multi-billion dollar opportunity for us."
As you can imagine, Wilson has been lambasted online. One critic wrote, "EA's CEO said Ai has the potential to impact 60% of the company's development processes. Are EA games about to become even more soulless?!"
Another added, "EA should ship games finished instead of expecting fans and modders to do it for them," and a third said, "Andrew Wilson expecting to see AI impact "60 percent of development processes" and that they are 'embracing it' sounds like a passive way of saying 'get f****d' to anyone who currently is employed at an EA studio."
Like it or not, it looks like EA's AI future is coming, and if you're a real-life human working for the company, uncertain times could be ahead.
About The Author
Tom Chapman
Tom is Trending News Editor at GGRecon, with an NCTJ qualification in Broadcast Journalism and over seven years of experience writing about film, gaming, and television. With bylines at IGN, Digital Spy, Den of Geek, and more, Tom’s love of horror means he's well-versed in all things Resident Evil, with aspirations to be the next Chris Redfield.
