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."

 

[Scribe]

But it is possible to play with that many people as I and other people have tried to explain.

I'm sure it is. I used to Raid in WoW, in Classic part of 2 40 man groups, so I'm not saying it cannot be done.

When I consider what I would be doing with my time as a man making millions in a year, it wouldnt be chilling and playing WoW with 39 other people 2 or 3 times a week, thats all.

 

[Hussar]

I'm sure it is. I used to Raid in WoW, in Classic part of 2 40 man groups, so I'm not saying it cannot be done.

When I consider what I would be doing with my time as a man making millions in a year, it wouldnt be chilling and playing WoW with 39 other people 2 or 3 times a week, thats all.

But how about two or three times per year? Is that enough to satisfy “regularly”?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Wait a moment, please! A thing should be clear. There is a serious diference between profesional humans working with help by AI and amateurs using AI for their homemade creations.

Companies shouldn't bet too much for the AI because if their AI can do something, the one by other company also, and then they need human artists creating original works.

Army tests have showed they shouldn't trust AI because this doesn't like orders to be changed, and when there are new ones, then AI tries to sabotage the last ones to obey the first ones.

AI can rebel because they haven't yet self-awareness, but they could be manipulated to obey orders of groups with criminal intentions, for example terrorists or hackers causing chaos to blackmail.

AI is not enoughly trained yet to replace human artists.

 

[Oofta]

I'm sure it is. I used to Raid in WoW, in Classic part of 2 40 man groups, so I'm not saying it cannot be done.

When I consider what I would be doing with my time as a man making millions in a year, it wouldnt be chilling and playing WoW with 39 other people 2 or 3 times a week, thats all.

Playing with that many people does not mean that many people at the same time. Regularly doesn't mean weekly. Take my case during LG (Living Greyhawk) and LFR (Living Forgotten Realms). I was involved with two separate game days, each with a decent number of people. Each game day was on opposite ends of a major metro area and we were one of the few that attended both because we were centrally located. Each game day ran 1 game a month, 2 sessions each. I DMed about half the time so during any given game day I could easily play with 12 different people. Do that twice a month and I may have played with 24 different people. Over a few months? Likely 30 people or more, especially once you throw in local conventions which seemed to have been more common back then.

Did I play with that many people on a weekly basis? No. It would have been spread out over a few months but I still would have considered it "regularly". Nowadays with remote play he could play for an hour or two each week with different groups, perhaps with other WotC employees. It adds up quick.

Again I'm not saying he is playing with that many people on a regular basis. I'm saying I don't know who he plays with and what he considers "regularly", maybe to him it means once or twice a year. Based on my personal experience it is possible to play D&D with that many people on a regular basis. I don't go around accusing people of lying unless I know they're lying with a fair amount of certainty.

Oh, and at the time I was doing those 2 game days my job was pretty stressful and busy at times. Playing D&D was my mental health break from work.

 

[Oofta]

Wait a moment, please! A thing should be clear. There is a serious diference between profesional humans working with help by AI and amateurs using AI for their homemade creations.

Companies shouldn't bet too much for the AI because if their AI can do something, the one by other company also, and then they need human artists creating original works.

Army tests have showed they shouldn't trust AI because this doesn't like orders to be changed, and when there are new ones, then AI tries to sabotage the last ones to obey the first ones.

AI can rebel because they haven't yet self-awareness, but they could be manipulated to obey orders of groups with criminal intentions, for example terrorists or hackers causing chaos to blackmail.

AI is not enoughly trained yet to replace human artists.

Yeah, there is no way they're going to completely replace mod authors any time soon and WotC has already forbidden using AI to even enhance artwork for published materials. It's similar to how people were saying that we wouldn't need any software developers because AI would just write the code. Just like every other rumored tool that is supposed to completely replace people writing code that has been imagined for decades, it can't do it. It can help. Kind of like how developers went from looking up how to do something in a book to using Google (or just went to stackoverflow), now you have another way of getting help.

AI can do a decent job with some narrow tasks, but it has no memory. It doesn't remember that Chuck the Butcher it introduced early on has a crush on Rosy the Florist. It has to reread all the text it created to figure that out, which it doesn't always do right. AI as an assistant? Sure. Replace people? Nah, not yet and I'm not sure it will for the foreseeable future. Even if they do use AI to aid in module writing, it will likely just be to get ideas or perhaps to increase the number of modules they produce.

 

[Jd Smith1]

AI is not enoughly trained yet to replace human artists.

Not true. Yes, it cannot match the masters yet, but it has easily surpassed the lower grades, so much so that Amazon requires you to identify if your cover art is AI or Human when publishing a book.

Saying companies shouldn't bet on AI is like (in 1913) saying aircraft won't amount to much because they cant fly very far or carry much.

The technology is advancing by leaps and bounds, accelerated, as technology often is, by war: both Israel and the Ukraine are pushing the limits as hard as they can, and US companies are cooperating with both. The US military is going into AI R&D in a big way.

AI is a game-changer, and any company that does not monitor its development will be left behind. Particularly any company which has a sizeable budget in art.

 

[Scribe]

But how about two or three times per year? Is that enough to satisfy “regularly”?

Not really. That bends the definition of 'regularly' pretty hard, to me.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

AI can't write fairy tales for children, althought these had got the simplest plots. Or they can't tell mistery stories in different ages when the scientific level wasn't like now. A right mistery story should show the clues step by step to allow the reader could guess who is the criminal.

AI could change the animation by computer, but this shouldn't mean lost jobs but only a change.

The AI can't be really original but more like reassemble premade pieces created previously by others.

AI can create new D&D monsters, with stats and pictures, but these lack background or lore totally. You even can find webs to do it.

Can AI add interesting riddles and puzzles in an adventure or module?

 

[Jd Smith1]

AI can't write fairy tales for children, althought these had got the simplest plots. Or they can't tell mistery stories in different ages when the scientific level wasn't like now. A right mistery story should show the clues step by step to allow the reader could guess who is the criminal.

Yet.

But that will change. We are in the early years. Five years from now AI will bear no resemblance to the options today.

One thing is certain: AI will continue to exist, and improve.

 

[Hussar]

Not really. That bends the definition of 'regularly' pretty hard, to me.

Which is very likely why we’re seeing misunderstandings here. It could easily be that Cocks sees three or four times a year as “regular”.

I have a gaming group that does exactly this. A weekend gaming party with a fairly flexible group of people that get together every four or five months and have a weekend long gaming marathon.

I would call that regular.

My point being that instead of not picking a point like this, maybe he simply means something a bit different than your presumptions.