With debate continuing over the growing presence of controversial generative AI tools in game creation, EA’s president of enterprise development, Laura Miele, said she believes the technology has sparked a “genuine surge in creativity” within the publisher’s studios.
Miele made these remarks at Game Business Live, an event attended by Eurogamer, during this year’s Summer Game Fest. When host Christopher Dring asked, “Will the rise of AI tools result in shorter development cycles?”, Miele—who previously served as president of EA Entertainment before her latest promotion—answered, “Perhaps in certain areas they will. I truly believe in what I have observed; I’m quite excited about it.”
“I’ve always wanted to… help the developers in our studio reduce friction, and I’ve hoped to act as a steady source of support as they build experiences that define their careers,” Miele added. “From what I’ve seen, AI has helped lower friction across our pipelines, tools, and day-to-day workflows, and that’s been genuinely exciting.
“It’s removed some of the more repetitive parts of their work—I’ve noticed quicker prototyping, more rapid creative exploration, and more productive exchanges about creativity and reaching shared agreement. So… I find it extremely compelling. In my view, a real increase in creativity is taking shape as some of the most time-consuming tasks in development become less burdensome.”
Miele’s upbeat comments come after a Business Insider report from last October, which said EA leadership spent the prior year “encouraging its nearly 15,000 employees to leverage AI for practically everything”—ranging from coding and concept art work to managerial duties such as “scripted discussions with direct reports regarding sensitive issues like compensation and promotions”.
That optimism may not be surprising, considering that in 2023 EA CEO Andrew Wilson described AI as “the very foundation of our business,” adding that the company had more than 100 “active novel AI projects” supporting game development. Still, according to Business Insider, the effort has also led to employee frustrations. Some worried about job security after being asked to use and train AI systems with their own work, while others said EA’s internal chatbot, ReefGPT, produced incorrect code and other “hallucinations” that then had to be fixed.
Generative AI tools remain highly disputed, of course, largely because of the major ethical and environmental concerns connected to the technology. The situation is further complicated by the influence AI is having on the consumer hardware market: as major tech companies move quickly to build new AI data centers, prices for RAM and storage—and for devices that depend on them—have risen sharply. Even so, generative AI continues gaining traction throughout the gaming industry.
Many major publishers are already bringing the tech into their workflows. For instance, PlayStation has recently revealed a set of AI efforts, including plans to “enhance productivity [across its studios] through the use of AI-powered tools.” Capcom has also stated that it is “noticing a certain level of effectiveness from the adoption of generative AI.” Meanwhile, Epic said its upcoming Unreal Engine 6 will provide major support for the technology.
Epic head Tim Sweeney has long expressed optimism about generative AI. Last year, he dismissed AI transparency initiatives introduced by firms like Valve on Steam as unnecessary, arguing that the technology “will be involved in nearly all future production.” He may have a point—more than 1,000 games shown in Steam’s latest Next Fest include at least some form of generative AI disclosure.
Against this backdrop, former Take-Two AI chief Dr. Luke Dicken—whose group focused on examining how different kinds of AI might help with game development—has recently shared concerns about generative AI. He said it is “poisoning the well” for AI overall, adding: “Some of the excesses seen in generative AI are so severe that it is essential to ensure you can push back.”