Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks Talks AI Usage in D&D [UPDATED!]

Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks is convinced that the Dungeons & Dragons franchise will support some kind of AI usage in the future. Speaking today at a Goldman Sachs event, Cocks spoke about how AI products could soon support Dungeons & Dragons and other Hasbro brands. Asked about whether AI has the potential to "bend the cost curve" in terms of entertainment development or digital gaming, and how it's being used in the toy and content industries, Cocks said the following:

"Inside of development, we've already been using AI. It's mostly machine-learning-based AI or proprietary AI as opposed to a ChatGPT approach. We will deploy it significantly and liberally internally as both a knowledge worker aid and as a development aid. I'm probably more excited though about the playful elements of AI. If you look at a typical D&D player....I play with probably 30 or 40 people regularly. There's not a single person who doesn't use AI somehow for either campaign development or character development or story ideas. That's a clear signal that we need to be embracing it. We need to do it carefully, we need to do it responsibly, we need to make sure we pay creators for their work, and we need to make sure we're clear when something is AI-generated. But the themes around using AI to enable user-generated content, using AI to streamline new player introduction, using AI for emergent storytelling, I think you're going to see that not just our hardcore brands like D&D but also multiple of our brands."

Wizards of the Coast representatives has repeatedly said that Dungeons & Dragons is a game made by people for people, as multiple AI controversies has surrounded the brand and its parent company. Wizards updated its freelance contracts to explicitly prohibit use of AI and has pulled down AI-generated artwork that was submitted for Bigby's Presents: Glory of the Giants in 2023 after they learned it was made using AI tools.

A FAQ related to AI specifically notes that "Hasbro has a vast portfolio of 1900+ brands of which Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons are two – two very important, cherished brands. Each brand is going to approach its products differently. What is in the best interest of Trivial Pursuit is likely quite different than that of Magic: The Gathering or Dungeons & Dragons." This statement acknowledges that Hasbro may use AI for other brands, while also stating that Wizards is trying to keep AI-generated artwork away from the game. However, while Wizards seems to want to keep AI away from D&D and Magic, their parent company's CEO seems to think that AI and D&D aren't naturally opposed.

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UPDATE -- Greg Tito, who was WotC's communications director until recently, commented on BlueSky: "I'm deeply mistrustful of AI and don't want people using it anywhere near my D&D campaigns."

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It's that "bending the cost curve using AI" is an unintentional euphemism for laying people off.

Hey, be fair.

It's an extremely intentional euphemism for laying people off.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Or, Chris, it's a clear signal that you game with tech bros.

I game with about half as many people as you do, and one player uses Stable Diffusion to create game art of his character.

I was wondering about that 30-40 number. Is in different kinds of campaigns? I run two groups, and we have a total of 5 players because one player is in both and they are each three person games (and there have been times when I have gotten as high as like 10-12 players between different campaigns)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I was wondering about that 30-40 number. Is in different kinds of campaigns? I run two groups, and we have a total of 5 players because one player is in both and they are each three person games (and there have been times when I have gotten as high as like 10-12 players between different campaigns)

I have about half that many players, most of whom play in about two thirds of my games at most. If he's like me, he periodically puts out the call of "hey, I want to run a game of Y on X date, who's in?" and some of those people jump in each time.

 

[Neal Freeman]

Im going to fight the fight against AI even if I know I will lose.

You have my sword

 

[Vaalingrade]

To me, much of the problem with Mr. Cocks' statements is that he doesn't really talk about what he wants to use AI for.

Honestly, that's the best we can hope and the best indicator it ain't happening.

You tell the shareholders we're doing the new hotness with as little commitment and detail as possible so they're happy and you can have the R&D guys invent a problem to 'solve' with AI later down the road if it even is a thing by the time the rent comes due on that statement.

Think back to how video game companies handled NFTs when they KNEW their costumers hated them and would revolt. They said they'd 'implement blockchain technology' and then went silent runnings until the collapse for the most part unless they were being run by True Believers who wanted to make it happen.

 

[Von Ether]

Honestly, that's the best we can hope and the best indicator it ain't happening.

You tell the shareholders we're doing the new hotness with as little commitment and detail as possible so they're happy and you can have the R&D guys invent a problem to 'solve' with AI later down the road if it even is a thing by the time the rent comes due on that statement.

Think back to how video game companies handled NFTs when they KNEW their costumers hated them and would revolt. They said they'd 'implement blockchain technology' and then went silent runnings until the collapse for the most part unless they were being run by True Believers who wanted to make it happen.

I can see this. If he doesn't say, "We're working on it." He's going to have someone breathing down his neck every day to jump on the new hot thing.

But yeah, I play with quite few people and not only do people not use AI, they use the game to inspire their own art practice.

 

[Umbran]

It sounded like he wanted to use AI to help his creative talent in various ways.

The problem with "sounded like" is that everyone has a different opinion of what it "sounded like".

 

[Incenjucar]

For D&D it would be so much better to use LLMs as a research tool to help digest all of the existing works into usable data points and references to help humans catch up with decades of information without spending decades reading.

"What are all the dragons that have acid powers" or "which demon lord has the least development" or "which of these supported biomes have we used the least" could all be great seeds for creating something new using a human's own ideas.

 

[SteveC]

I work in an environment that uses AI to handle jobs that they don't have the staffing to handle, and those jobs have affected hundreds of thousands of people. I've been to a number of different trainings about things I can use it for in the job I do right now. I say this because I do have some experience with it.

And I just don't see what I'm going to use AI to play D&D with. I suppose it can generate some random maps or character illustrations, but when we get to color text for room descriptions, I think we're starting to push it. I'm genuinely interested to see what people expect to do with it in a game.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

For D&D it would be so much better to use LLMs as a research tool to help digest all of the existing works into usable data points and references to help humans catch up with decades of information without spending decades reading.

"What are all the dragons that have acid powers" or "which demon lord has the least development" or "which of these supported biomes have we used the least" could all be great seeds for creating something new using a human's own ideas.

Both of those examples could be done just fine with spreadsheets.