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

[I'm A Banana]

Technologies that are disruptive are scary. People will lose jobs and have to learn something new. But that has always been true throughout history. Those people that were really good at making stone tools had to switch over once copper and other metals replaced the need for that skillset. Obviously over the past half century or so, computers have accelerated that change dramatically. But disruptive technologies are always coming onto the scene and we always adjust.

I don't think the appeal to history is as reassuring as it maybe could be.

Part of how we "learned something new" in the wake of the industrial revolution was to pursue war and death on an unprecedented scale that showed its teeth with genocide and ended with the prospect of a few skittish apes destroying countless living beings in a nuclear apocalypse.

Cars replaced horses. Horses didn't learn something new, there just became less of them in use.

We invented agriculture and suddenly we had taxes and kings and empires and churches.

We invented bronze and then had the Bronze Age Collapse when the trade networks were suddenly not as reliable as they had been.

The genie never goes back in the bottle, but "adjust" is doing a lot of lift here. The dangers of human life are a hydra. Cut off one head and two more replace it.

I don't think AI is an epoch-changing thing, at least at the moment. But I do think it is something that renders late stage capitalism more dangerous for individual workers. And that's a problem for me. Until we have something like Universal Basic Income or robust industry unionization, AI D&D content generation is only going to be a way to make more people too poor and too stressed to be able to afford the leisure of playing D&D. It could be cool. It is actually dangerous to livelihoods.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Now I am torn on the impact of AI and can see both ends of that argument. But I certainly do not think it will be all roses like you seem to think it will be. A lot of the Techbros think it will be a Star Trek future and I think that's pretty normal Utopian thinking. Life never goes that direction. It's going to be a mixed bag in all likelihood.

Just to make it clear, I'm not at all blasé about some of the problems and risks associated with AI, either. I'm just quite unwilling to toss out the baby with the bathwater here to avoid those.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

Folks who are defending "legitimate" uses of generative AI or lumping it in with all AI, as though it's inevitable or part of some natural give-and-take...you should really look into how gen AI works. Like the actual process behind text-to-image generators and especially LLMs.

Just like NFTs and crypto aren't measures of progress in digital currency, gen AI isn't a measure of progress toward better creative tools. It's great for parlor tricks—including neat stuff like creating an NPC portrait or I guess writing gaming material for you, though dear lord, that seems depressing to me. Like, there aren't enough books full of story hooks and random tables, some written by really talented folks? But also, the power use and carbon footprint associated with even hobbyist uses of gen AI are very bad news, and ultimately maybe not worth the boring visuals and language these models can produce.

 

[Oofta]

I don't think the appeal to history is as reassuring as it maybe could be.

Part of how we "learned something new" in the wake of the industrial revolution was to pursue war and death on an unprecedented scale that showed its teeth with genocide and ended with the prospect of a few skittish apes destroying countless living beings in a nuclear apocalypse.

Cars replaced horses. Horses didn't learn something new, there just became less of them in use.

We invented agriculture and suddenly we had taxes and kings and empires and churches.

We invented bronze and then had the Bronze Age Collapse when the trade networks were suddenly not as reliable as they had been.

The genie never goes back in the bottle, but "adjust" is doing a lot of lift here. The dangers of human life are a hydra. Cut off one head and two more replace it.

I don't think AI is an epoch-changing thing, at least at the moment. But I do think it is something that renders late stage capitalism more dangerous for individual workers. And that's a problem for me. Until we have something like Universal Basic Income or robust industry unionization, AI D&D content generation is only going to be a way to make more people too poor and too stressed to be able to afford the leisure of playing D&D. It could be cool. It is actually dangerous to livelihoods.

Computers, especially personal computers were pretty revolutionary as well. I have a computer in my pocket that not long ago would have qualified as a supercomputer. We just don't realize how much they changed society because now we're used to it. I think much of the impact of LLMs and related AI technology is over-hyped, although there are niches where it is having significant impact. There is no indication we will soon have or will ever have a general artificial intelligence (AI that actually thinks) any time soon.

 

[Cadence]

Folks who are defending "legitimate" uses of generative AI or lumping it in with all AI, as though it's inevitable or part of some natural give-and-take...you should really look into how gen AI works. Like the actual process behind text-to-image generators and especially LLMs.

What level of "actual process" do you mean? I assume you don't mean the actual algorithms behind neutral nets and the transformer, etc..

Just like NFTs and crypto aren't measures of progress in digital currency, gen AI isn't a measure of progress toward better creative tools. It's great for parlor tricks—including neat stuff like creating an NPC portrait or I guess writing gaming material for you, though dear lord, that seems depressing to me. Like, there aren't enough books full of story hooks and random tables, some written by really talented folks? But also, the power use and carbon footprint associated with even hobbyist uses of gen AI are very bad news, and ultimately maybe not worth the boring visuals and language these models can produce.

At least the generative AI programs give out something I can imagine a person wanting (as low a bar as that is) compared to NFT or crypto. Even if it is just a St.Urho's day poem in the style of Robert Service or a picture of a D&D character to go on a character sheet.

Ballpark, how many CGI movie's worth of power did it take to train Chat GPT? How any streaming videos is getting an answer from Bard equivalent to? [Edit: Not trying to minimize anything, I just don't know.]

 

[mamba]

There is no indication we will soon have or will ever have a general artificial intelligence (AI that actually thinks) any time soon.

we really do not need one to replace 90% of jobs either…

 

[Oofta]

we really do not need one to replace 90% of jobs either…

When MS Excel became a thing a lot of bookkeepers and accountants lost their jobs. But guess what? We replaced those positions and then some. I see no reason to believe we'll replace 90% of jobs, although many people's jobs may be different.

To replace 90% of jobs you'd have to have a truly intelligent and thinking application that simply does not exist. People have been predicting a general AI for half a century "any day now". Hasn't happened yet, I don't think it will for decades.

 

[Faolyn]

Oh, they care about diversity (so do I, by the way). They just don't get hung up on how that diversity is explicitly presented in role playing products.

Yeah, but the way diversity is presented is what's important. Actions, not words after all. I want to be able to open an RPG and see people who don't look like me get presented in a positive light.

 

[Faolyn]

When MS Excel became a thing a lot of bookkeepers and accountants lost their jobs. But guess what? We replaced those positions and then some. I see no reason to believe we'll replace 90% of jobs, although many people's jobs may be different.

To replace 90% of jobs you'd have to have a truly intelligent and thinking application that simply does not exist. People have been predicting a general AI for half a century "any day now". Hasn't happened yet, I don't think it will for decades.

There's a difference between writing/visual artistry and bookkeeping/accounting, though. They're completely different skill sets. I don't want to be seen as looking down on bookkeeping and accounting, because those are important things, but you need to be able to develop styles and techniques in creative fields that you don't need to develop in a mathematical field (and IIRC, creative accounting is generally not a good thing). While you can learn to write or draw through study the same way you can learn to do the math needed for accounting, you can't learn to develop a style through study. Unless you're just copying someone else.

This is true even in writing and creating art for gaming products. If generative AI becomes "good enough" to fully replace artists and writers, then what it's going to produce is either going to be incredibly bland or a copy of someone else's work. I don't know about you, but I don't want to pay for something bland or that's just a copy.

I don't mind if people use AI to create something they can use as a model or prompt--that's no different than grabbing a picture off google and using that as a guide, or being inspired by a piece of writing. But the final piece needs a personal touch in a way that mathematical fields don't.

 

[Oofta]

There's a difference between writing/visual artistry and bookkeeping/accounting, though. They're completely different skill sets. I don't want to be seen as looking down on bookkeeping and accounting, because those are important things, but you need to be able to develop styles and techniques in creative fields that you don't need to develop in a mathematical field (and IIRC, creative accounting is generally not a good thing). While you can learn to write or draw through study the same way you can learn to do the math needed for accounting, you can't learn to develop a style through study. Unless you're just copying someone else.

This is true even in writing and creating art for gaming products. If generative AI becomes "good enough" to fully replace artists and writers, then what it's going to produce is either going to be incredibly bland or a copy of someone else's work. I don't know about you, but I don't want to pay for something bland or that's just a copy.

I don't mind if people use AI to create something they can use as a model or prompt--that's no different than grabbing a picture off google and using that as a guide, or being inspired by a piece of writing. But the final piece needs a personal touch in a way that mathematical fields don't.

LLMs aren't creative. They're highly advanced autocomplete. I can see people using AI for their own personal use as a starting point to to supplement, I don't see it ever replacing professionals in the foreseeable future.

In any cases, change happens. People will have to transition and find new jobs and new skills like we always have. I just don't buy the extreme predictions of impending doom.