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."

 

[Gradine]

 

[Hussar]

No offense, but there was no logic in that hyperbole.

This thread has been replete with people saying exactly that. That is not hyperbole at all.

What do you think “inventing the airplane also invents the airplane crash” means?

Do we have to only fly airplanes after we’ve made them impossible to crash? Even in the early days of commercial aircraft, they were still far safer to travel on than any other means. Even today, despite some obvious problems, air travel is still by far safer than any other means of transportation.

But apparently we should only have airplanes if it’s impossible to crash. Being better than before and constantly getting better isn’t good enough.

We must restrict ai because apparently it leads to child labour. The fact that technology has made child labour nearly unthinkable in most countries doesn’t matter. The example of a meat packing plant or mining rate earths ignores the fact that a hundred years ago, not only would this not be news, it wouldn’t even be seen as a bad thing. Of course you had a hundred 13-17 year olds in a meat packing plant 100 years ago. That would be the same as every meat packing plant instead of see as deplorable exploitation.

 

[tetrasodium]

Award winning?....

AI wins state fair art contest, annoys humans

Stealth win for AI-generated art inspires heated ethics debate on social media.

arstechnica.com

US rejects AI copyright for famous state fair-winning Midjourney art

Controversial AI art piece from 2022 lacks human authorship required for registration.

arstechnica.com

 

[Hussar]

I just want to clarify my position. I'm reacting to what I see as romanticization of the past. This idea that because there are human costs to adopting technology, we should be wary of adoption. But, that ignores the very real costs of not adopting technology. @I'm A Banana posted the John Henry song. A pure romanticization of history. Let's not forget that the adoption of steam machinery to build railroads led to the ending of using tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of Chinese "workers" (and I'm putting that in scare quotes because they were slaves in all but name) in both Canada and the US to build the railroads. Workers that were kept in the most deplorable, horrific conditions, and, again, thousands of child labourers as well. I mean, sure, there was the human cost to workers losing their jobs building railroads, but, that's offset by the horrific cost of having human workers build railroads.

I have to admit, I had never seen anyone use the term Luddite as anything other than a negative before. It never occured to me that someone might see Luddites as the heroes. Luddite, as far as I know, has always carried a negative connotation for people who insist on living in the past. @Vaalingrade has insisted that child labour is on the rise because of technology. Something that is flat out false and in fact the cost of not adopting technology would be far, far greater in terms of child labour.

To me, it seems that people are romanticizing a past that never actually existed in order to claim some sort of moral high ground to oppose the adoption of technology.

 

[SlyFlourish]

Regarding AI use by players and DMs, I ran a poll. Yes, I know, survey bias, but it's better than Chris Cocks's 30 imaginary friends.

Here were the results:

Also, Wolfgang Baur at Kobold Press had this to say:

We don’t use generative AI art, we don’t use AI to generate text for our game design, and we don’t believe that AI is magical pixie dust that makes your tabletop games better.

 

[Scribe]

t's better than Chris Cocks's 30 imaginary friends.

I have this pop into my head randomly, that he plays with 30 unique people and I think.

The man makes millions, and he's gaming on the daily, while I deal with BS life naughty word?

No chance.

 

[Vaalingrade]

@Vaalingrade has insisted that child labour is on the rise because of technology.

Man, I'd love to see where he said it was because of technology as opposed to arguing against the idea the technology ended it. That would sure show that Vaalingrade guy a thing or two, I reckon.

 

[Hussar]

Man, I'd love to see where he said it was because of technology as opposed to arguing against the idea the technology ended it. That would sure show that Vaalingrade guy a thing or two, I reckon.

So I imagined the references to rare earth mining and the like? References to shoes and clothes? References to how child labour is increasing?

If your only point is that child labour still exists, well, yes. That’s true. But if that’s your point, what does that have to do with a discussion on adopting technology?

The truth is child labour in pre-industrial societies was standard. Virtually every child would be put to work. Today, because of technology, that is no longer true. Technology has greatly reduced child labour and continues to do so every year.

 

[Vaalingrade]

If your only point is that child labour still exists, well, yes. That’s true. But if that’s your point, what does that have to do with a discussion on adopting technology?

Because someone was saying technology got rid of child labor while not only is child labor used for technology, but child labor is making a legislative comeback as we speak.

Technology did nothing to reduce child labor, that was socio-political change. Children were working in the industrial era factories and getting ground up in the meat packing plants cited in The Jungle. Pointing this out is NOT the same as saying tech caused child labor, it's refuting the absolutely wild assertion that tech reduced it.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Because someone was saying technology got rid of child labor while not only is child labor used for technology, but child labor is making a legislative comeback as we speak.

Technology did nothing to reduce child labor, that was socio-political change. Children were working in the industrial era factories and getting ground up in the meat packing plants cited in The Jungle. Pointing this out is NOT the same as saying tech caused child labor, it's refuting the absolutely wild assertion that tech reduced it.

I question whether child labor was actually reduced, or simply relocated to other nations.