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.

---

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."

 

[Scribe]

This is an attempt to find a problem for this solution.

Pretty much where we are with all this.

 

[Incenjucar]

When a solution is available it's pretty normal to identify all possible applications for it. You should see how many ways people use peanuts.

 

[Konrad13]

Nope. Nope nope nope nope nope/

 

[The Soloist]

Let's replace the CEO with an AI, it's not that hard to model. Maybe it would be more human.

 

[cbwjm]

I'm not a big fan of the Forgotten Realms Wiki generally, but doesn't this already exist?

Dalelands

The Dalelands, also referred to as the Dales, was a region in north Faerûn of dense forests and bountiful, rolling farmlands.[1] It comprised a loosely-organized group of countries called dales that were as diverse as they were independent.[4] The Dalelands were located around and partially...

forgottenrealms.fandom.com

Sure and that can be fine but it's still a single page per search term. My question was just using the Dalelands as an example, you can ask more complex questions using an AI model without having to bounce between pages.

 

[Hussar]

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.

Ok. Cards on the table, I don’t really understand a lot of this. What counts as AI and what doesn’t seems to be evolving daily and depends on who I ask. So please be gentle if I’m being an idiot here.

Would something like Dungeon Alchemist count as using AI? You tell the program that this building you’ve roughly sketched out is an inn. Click the button and it’s turned into a 3d render of an inn complete with lighting, furniture and line of sight blocking for use with a vtt.

Is that not AI? Or at least using ai to help me. Add in an npc generator of some sort that also generates a mini token and matching portrait for the patrons and is it AI now?

 

[Incenjucar]

AI is currently a buzzword being applied to various automation efforts. Typically the current usage applies to Generative Models, which analyze existing data, reduce it to a simplified form, and can then remix it based on requests made to it.

 

[irrg]

Let's replace the CEO with an AI, it's not that hard to model. Maybe it would be more human.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I was really iffy on Cocks' vision for D&D until he broke out the finger guns at the end.

 

[GnomeWorks]

Would something like Dungeon Alchemist count as using AI?

Their website says that the software is powered by AI, so I would assume so.

Looking at the video of what it's doing, my guess would probably be stable diffusion of some kind, but it could also be a more typical GAN.

While they could be doing something like using your input as the basis for prompt engineering being fed into an LLM, that seems unlikely to me given the consistency this looks like it's producing.