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."

 

[Jd Smith1]

I don't believe him, period. Play with 30-40 people regularly? And he's a a CEO?

He probably plays online, or local LAN. That maximizes your game time. I have a player who plays in five different games per week.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Come to think of it, DnDBeyond organizing a "pool" of players who can be on call in a particular city, is probably a better way to help D&D players find each other.

I don't know about DnDBeyond, but there are numerous ways to locate gamers online.

 

[Scribe]

Nobody should expect lifetime employment any more.

Why?

 

[Jd Smith1]

I feel that AI is unlikely to increase revenue in a significant way. The income of players will not increase. Online play already exists and is free. Gaming tools already exist.

I do not think the market for AI DMs or players is terribly large, and it would compete with real gaming communities. The amount of work needed to make a good system of this nature is substantial, costly, and risky.

As such, I expect AI to be primarily used to reduce how much they have to pay people.

Have you played Balors Gate 3?

There's numerous 5e (and other TTRPG) systems available as video games. AI Gming would simply upgrade the game engine.

AI Gming coupled with video game graphics would really impact the entire TTRPG industry.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Problem is that when you remove people's economic security, you get social unrest.

Only when the change is massive and fast. Buggy makers, blacksmiths, and horse breeders went under as industries when the automobile came out, but it took a couple decades to go from the first horseless carriages to Ford's mass production, and people had time to adjust.

It is increasingly obvious that graphic art will be taken over by AI in the next decade, so the shock will not be great to society. Especially since artists tend to starve a lot at the best of times.

 

[Dire Bare]

you're kinder than I am. I would put it as "he's lying".

Huh. Okay.

Odd thing to lie about. Especially when it is totally plausible.

Just because it is outside of your own experience, doesn't make it fishy.

We've already had several posters in this thread explain multiple scenarios where gaming with 30-40 is very possible.

But whatever. WotC is evil, blah, blah.

 

[Dire Bare]

Why?

With a single employer. Not overall.

In the US, it used to be an expectation amongst the middle class that you dedicated yourself to the company, and the company took care of you. Of course, this was more fantasy than reality, but held true for some.

Today? Not so much. Not even as a fantasy.

 

[Scribe]

With a single employer. Not overall.

In the US, it used to be an expectation amongst the middle class that you dedicated yourself to the company, and the company took care of you. Of course, this was more fantasy than reality, but held true for some.

Today? Not so much. Not even as a fantasy.

Right, as employee rights have been eroded, along with the social contract.

It need not be this way.

The combo of AI, mass immigration, and open acceptance that a Job can be dumped for reasons, is sure going to be something in 5 to 10 years.

 

[Oofta]

Why?

Because that's not how business works? That has never been how business works? For a brief period of history many big businesses were relatively stable. But companies go through fluctuations of growth and shrinkage, they aren't charities. Technology has been changing since there have been businesses and sometimes that means a job becomes obsolete.

My dad ran a small business that required a surveyor. Then new technology came available (a laser level) and the surveyor was no longer needed. My dad hated laying off an employee, but what was he supposed to do? Keep him on the payroll doing nothing? Ignore the new technology and lose business because he couldn't compete?

Sometimes businesses are too quick to lay people off. Sometimes quality is sacrificed for technology. But sometimes? Sometimes that guy that builds horse drawn carriages needs to let people go because everyone is starting to drive automobiles.

So no, I don't think companies should lay people off. We don't even know how they intend to use AI. All we know is that they've taken a firm stance against using AI for art in their books.

Assuming it wasn't just a CEO checking the buzzword checkbox of course.

 

[Scribe]

Assuming it wasn't just a CEO checking the buzzword checkbox of course.

Well that, and a the very corporate desire to "bend the cost curve" so that somehow, the Giant Gorilla of the scene can 'stay competitive' with...their absolute lack of competition.