Xbox leaders reject AI slop, back human creators
You may have heard about the recent shakeup in Xbox. Phil Spencer, the longest-serving leader in Xbox history, has stepped down and handed over the reins to Asha Sharma, the new Commander-in-Chief.
News, rumors, and gamertags have been flying around the internet, but importantly, so has the conversation surrounding the Xbox and its future use of AI. You see, Asha Sharma is not just a random person, but the former head of CoreAI at Microsoft since 2024.
Microsoft and Xbox – AI is not a place
I was adamant the other day when the announcement was made that Asha Sharma would take over. Heck, I was terrified of the prospect of AI taking over a beloved industry whose core lives within the hearts of its creators.
I thought to myself that a company like Microsoft wouldn’t just skip its leaders on the playing field for someone leading the AI team unless it meant something. At least, I did. That was until his recent interview with CCO Matt Booty and our Jez Corden.
During their time, he also committed to the idea that there would never be AI slop within an Xbox game.
“I think with any new technology, it brings opportunities as a tool, but more importantly, especially now, we need to draw lines on what we won’t do,” he points out. “That’s what I tried to do when I shared my open letter. I will not flood our ecosystem with slop.”
It continues, “We will not have a passive effect, we will not have derivative work. I strongly believe in the words I shared earlier there. I think that in games, there have been a number of changes in technology. This is not new. There was 2D to 3D, hand animation to motion capture, and everything you can think of.”
Developers are free from any AI directives
Matt Booty also chimed in, noting that Microsoft isn’t pushing any kind of AI on developers or Xbox, and that teams are free to use the technology to improve their development efforts.
“We have no pressure from Microsoft; there are no directives about AI coming down. Our teams are free to use any technology that might be beneficial, whether it’s to help write code or test bugs, or things on the production line. At the end of the day, as Asha said, we’re committed to human-made art.”
Furthermore, he pointed out the fact that AI, like the tools that came before it, will shine as a tool and not as a substitute for human creation.
“As a group, game developers are always eager to use new technology. When Photoshop appeared, it took about one month for it to appear in all game studios in the world because it was very useful. Game teams have never hesitated to use new technology, but what I hear from all our studios: from the people, our artists, our coders, writers, doing creative work that I support, new technology is there. There is a need for more experts, new experts, and it raises the bar on that expectations for the quality of the games.”
Hearing these words brings me a higher kind of hope than I had before. I was a lot voice against the possible use of AI and the possibility that the human touch may disappear. Hearing both Asha and Matt Booty come out and talk about the use of behavior is where I’ve always believed the conversation is so important.
I once talked about this with ARC Raiders, how I saw their form as a decent, or “just” use of AI in game creation. As long as the intent, seed, and human creations can’t be replaced, using AI to enhance an already amazing work is the only use case I can see for AI.
Do you buy the Xbox pushes back on AI angle?
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