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."

 

[the Jester]

I'm more surprised that he claims to play with 30-40 people regularly as that is rather obvious naughty word.

I'm not in the industry, and I assume a CEO has way more free time than I do, and I play regularly with about half that number. I find it believable, if he loves to game and devotes lots of time to it. That's really only 3 or 4 oversized groups or 5 reasonable ones.

 

[SteveC]

I have a dm who has used AI to generate pictures, boxed text, custom monsters, and even plots. He has to tweak everything a bit, but it does a bunch of the work for him.

I guess I can see use for the DM (but I just wonder about things like generating boxed text, who uses that outside of a published adventure?) I just don't see much if any use for it as a player.

If you're not using a published adventure, you've got to come up with things somehow and if it works for him, more power to him. I just wonder if the campaign wouldn't start to seem like one generated by random tables.

 

[the Jester]

I guess I can see use for the DM (but I just wonder about things like generating boxed text, who uses that outside of a published adventure?) I just don't see much if any use for it as a player.

If you're not using a published adventure, you've got to come up with things somehow and if it works for him, more power to him. I just wonder if the campaign wouldn't start to seem like one generated by random tables.

He doesn't use it to run the game, and he judiciously adjusts things as needed, so... not too much. But I do think the difference is noticeable.

My favorite thing he does with AI is generating songs about our adventures, such as this: Eyes in the Dark by @vykyng | Suno

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The AI is not going to replace human artists. Even if the software was good, a human would help to fix possible failures. If you want a picture of Laurana fighting against Kitiara, LoRAs* should be created, and this would need time and work, and not only for the characters, but to add real epic poses.

LoRA (Low-Rank Adaptation) is a new technique for fine tuning large scale pre-trained models. Such models are usually trained on general domain data, so as to have the maximum amount of data.

The AI aren't a very right tool to create comics because we need all the stips with the same characters with the same faces, hair and clothing, and the same rooms with the same furnitures.

Llegally art created by AI can't be protected by copyright.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I honestly don't know, this isn't my exact area of expertise (most of my AI work is in computer vision and autonomous flight, so I keep up with this stuff on the side but it's not my focus). But judging from what Dungeon Alchemist is capable of, it certainly sounds reasonable.

I would still expect weirdness, even so, though. Little details to be off and such. These are still models, and so we must remember the adage: "all models are wrong, but some are useful."

What is ironic about this sort of thing is that hallucations would be beneficial, if applied in controlled circumstances.

With Dungeon Alchemist, it's a hazy line between "puts down random tiles based on what sort of environment it is" and "generative AI" (basically, they're sort of the same thing, AI boosters notwithstanding).

My understanding is that Dungeon Alchemist already requires DMs to re-do rooms periodically, when goofy stuff gets slapped down. But yeah, for the most part, it sounds like the random weirdness is helpful: Why is there a table with weird bottles in that guard room? What's on the bookcase in the priest's cell?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I guess I can see use for the DM (but I just wonder about things like generating boxed text, who uses that outside of a published adventure?) I just don't see much if any use for it as a player.

There are subscription websites that generate room descriptions for DMs. There's at least some people who feel more comfortable with having prewritten descriptions available. How big of an audience it is, I don't know.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Hey can my new dm ai have voice options, like cartoon dm or Matt mercer?

I was actually thinking about that while playing the new World of Warcraft expansion. Coming back to it after Baldur's Gate 3, I'm really missing hearing voices constantly, and not loving reading sometimes over-long quest text.

Blizzard having a set of AI voices that could read all the quest text out would be great for consumers, but terrible for voice actors -- including Mercer, who voiced the NPC who repaired all my gear throughout the Shadowlands expansion.

Given that we're already getting podcasts with AI voices, and that Tiktok has been using AI voice generation for quite some time now, I think canned NPC AI voices are likely coming very soon.

 

[DarkCrisis]

AI James Earl Jones or Morgan Freeman can AI narrate my games.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

AI James Earl Jones or Morgan Freeman can AI narrate my games.

Since neither of them would sign away their voice rights for anything less than a king's ransom, would you accept "guy who was hired on Fiverr to do a so-so imitation of James Earl Jones to train an AI?"

 

[DarkCrisis]

Since neither of them would be sign away their voice rights for anything less than a king's ransom, would you accept "guy who was hired on Fiverr to do a so-so imitation of James Earl Jones to train an AI?"

Ive heard JEJ has sold his voice rights for use as Vader.