WotC Hasbro CEO optimistic about AI in D&D and MTG’s future

[Kobold Avenger]

Every time they push AI like they've been doing, the more I see something like Frank Herbert's original idea for the Butlerian Jihad (not Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson's idea) becoming a more appealing one.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

Frank Herbert's original idea for the Butlerian Jihad (not Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson's idea)

The Dune Encyclopedia is hard to get a copy of these days but well worth the effort.

 

[mamba]

I empathize with people that lose their jobs but improving productivity is how we have the luxuries we have today. It wasn't that long ago that 2 got of 3 people were farmers. Go back to the 18th century and it was 90%.

true, the problem is that unless the people losing their jobs can find new ones that maybe even pay better, you have a problem.

So far we kinda managed to keep up with progress on that front, I doubt we can with AI. Truck drivers, cab drivers, cashiers, secretaries, heck, low level lawyering (form letters…) all can be replaced pretty soon and it won’t end there, so I am not so sure we still will keep up then

 

[Oofta]

If they're doing what you want them to do there's no need to raise alarm bells. It's only when they're going in a stupid direction that you need to raise the alarm.

It's not like Hasbro has feelings that get hurt when people get mad about something stupid they're doing. They're a corporation out to maximize profits - if they have a dumb idea that gets them bad PR and forces them to change plans I guess some guy who came up with the dumb idea might have his feelings hurt, but overall the corporation should actually be happy that they got the note that what they're planning is stupid with enough time to change directions and do something else.

There is absolutely nothing in the article that surprises me or indicates nefarious intent. There's no indication of a money grab or replacing content providers. Som people are already using LLMs when making content, I use it to give me ideas for some NPCs.

AI will in some way be integrated more an more into society in the future. Of course they are looking into it and figuring out what that means for the company. They'd be foolish not to.

 

[mamba]

I'm given to understand that they (that is, the person who'd purchased the cards) did, in fact, have them legally. A retailer breaking the street date for when something goes on sale, even accidentally, is not an issue of criminal law, and even if it was the penalty wouldn't fall on the customer who received the embargoed set of cards.

that is not my understanding, they had bought a different pack and got this one instead by accident (and too early)

 

[Alzrius]

that is not my understanding, they had bought a different pack and got this one instead by accident (and too early)

I thought that was what I said; the retailer accidentally broke the street date by giving the purchaser a different set of cards. Which is entirely legal and not at all the purchaser's problem.

 

[Jer]

There is absolutely nothing in the article that surprises me or indicates nefarious intent. There's no indication of a money grab or replacing content providers. Som people are already using LLMs when making content, I use it to give me ideas for some NPCs.

AI will in some way be integrated more an more into society in the future. Of course they are looking into it and figuring out what that means for the company. They'd be foolish not to.

Great - that's your opinion. No need to raise alarm bells, no need to start pushing back.

That's certainly not the opinion of a lot of the artists I follow online. A few of them who have done business with Wizards in the past have already said basically "if Wizards starts using AI art I stop working for them period." Because they see possible nefarious intent and are starting to push back.

If you don't feel like there's anything for you to worry about you don't have to worry about it. Just don't expect everyone else to have the same bar for "nefarious intent" that you do.

 

[Oofta]

Great - that's your opinion. No need to raise alarm bells, no need to start pushing back.

That's certainly not the opinion of a lot of the artists I follow online. A few of them who have done business with Wizards in the past have already said basically "if Wizards starts using AI art I stop working for them period." Because they see possible nefarious intent and are starting to push back.

If you don't feel like there's anything for you to worry about you don't have to worry about it. Just don't expect everyone else to have the same bar for "nefarious intent" that you do.

WOTC has a clear policy that for their D&D products AI art is not allowed and rejected art that they were planning on using because it had been "enhanced" by AI. They've taken a stance and clearly said "no". But apparently that's not good enough because nothing ever could be since they could theoretically change their minds in the future.

 

[Scribe]

WOTC has a clear policy that for their D&D products AI art is not allowed and rejected art that they were planning on using because it had been "enhanced" by AI. They've taken a stance and clearly said "no". But apparently that's not good enough because nothing ever could be since they could theoretically change their minds in the future.

Correct, they are demonstrably untrustworthy.

 

[Oofta]

true, the problem is that unless the people losing their jobs can find new ones that maybe even pay better, you have a problem.

So far we kinda managed to keep up with progress on that front, I doubt we can with AI. Truck drivers, cab drivers, cashiers, secretaries, heck, low level lawyering (form letters…) all can be replaced pretty soon and it won’t end there, so I am not so sure we still will keep up then

We have no idea what impact AI will have any more than the introduction of the internal combustion engine. We have far, far fewer farriers making horse shoes than we had in the past, that doesn't mean we should have stopped it's introduction. As far as truck drivers it's a pretty crappy job that has a 94% turnover rate. Admittedly a lot of the blame for that comes from rules that broke the truck driver union.

We can't stop progress, burying our heads in the sand and ignoring it is not going to change anything other than we'll be surprised when we're impacted.