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."

 

[Vaalingrade]

We used to have to hand run credit cards by entering the number into the register and then running a press over paper with the card under it, then enter the paper into the register to print with the recite, then we needed you to sign it and manually try to check signature (good luck) then give one copy to the person and put one in the till... at the end of the night we had to organize all of them and give them to the manager in payroll office who would file them.
Today the customer taps the card. everything is handled by the computer... in fact you can go to a self check and not even need to have another human there.

Not Generative AI

My grandfather kept ledgers for his businesses, he needed 2 accountants to do it (one just for keeping paper work one for actually filing taxes) and at any point 1-3 book keepers under them (but most of those were also working as secretary so more like the book keeping was 1/3 of there job) His businesses never grew to cover the entire state I live in.
Today I myself (not a full CPA) can run all of what those people did through excel, quick books and an app on my phone... BTW I also manage part of payroll, with HR... The company I work for (mainly I work with a couple) is expanding beyond the tristate area... and I am doing what all of those people together did and more for it.

And you are being paid less by inflation than any one of them.

And that also has nothing to do with generative AI looking for a problem to 'solve'.

 

[Velderan]

Not distributing or not reporting?

Target doesn’t have the 2024 PHB on their site and didn’t get the Vecna adventure so draw your own conclusion I guess.

 

[Oofta]

Target doesn’t have the 2024 PHB on their site and didn’t get the Vecna adventure so draw your own conclusion I guess.

I was asking because the response wasn't clear. I did not know Target ever sold the PHB. Although now that I think about it, it probably was mentioned somewhere, but I rarely shop at Target and not in the section that would have the book.

In addition, if suppliers switched there could be any number of reasons for a delay (negotiations, waiting for the MM, etc.) or possibly Target decided it wasn't worth carrying. We don't know.

 

[Velderan]

I was asking because the response wasn't clear. I did not know Target ever sold the PHB. Although now that I think about it, it probably was mentioned somewhere, but I rarely shop at Target and not in the section that would have the book.

In addition, if suppliers switched there could be any number of reasons for a delay (negotiations, waiting for the MM, etc.) or possibly Target decided it wasn't worth carrying. We don't know.

For sure. Maybe Target expects the same cost per book as Amazon while only buying a fraction and WotC didn’t think that arrangement was worth continuing. Who knows!

Either way, I haven’t seen the books physically in a Target store in awhile and they still carry some 3rd party TTRPG advice books and D&D books published by Random House so there’s still interest on some level by Target. I have no idea for Walmart, I haven’t been in one in over a decade.

 

[Oofta]

For sure. Maybe Target expects the same cost per book as Amazon while only buying a fraction and WotC didn’t think that arrangement was worth continuing. Who knows!

Either way, I haven’t seen the books physically in a Target store in awhile and they still carry some 3rd party TTRPG advice books and D&D books published by Random House so there’s still interest on some level by Target. I have no idea for Walmart, I haven’t been in one in over a decade.

It's just one of those things, like how well the 2024 version is selling, that I'm taking a wait-and-see attitude. If we aren't seeing the books in Target in 6 months then maybe it's something to discuss. I guess I just see no reason to think they'll stop selling books, especially when the under 25 crowd prefers print over e-books by a fairly significant margin.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Not Generative AI

right but those tech upgrades started the path of automation to where we are now... each step made it less man hours (or atleast man minutes) per use so less people could do more

And you are being paid less by inflation than any one of them.

pretty sure I said the same thing earlier... that is a problem WAY too far in the weeds to talk about here.

And that also has nothing to do with generative AI looking for a problem to 'solve'.

There was no problem with book keepers in 1945.
There was no problem with registers or credit card slide thingys in 1987
There was no problem with dial up internet
There was no problem with phone calls to people who lived local to answer your problems...

The 'problem' is the time it takes the effort it take and even the training it takes to do things... each upgrade in tech made things faster and easier (in theory)

So what does Generative AI do... nothing that a bunch of idiots couldn't have done on there own badly, and not as well as a highly skilled/talented person could do it. But it does it fast. It can be repeated, moving those man hours back to lower them...

Send 5 people to computer school and get them to build Art AI thingy...it pluders the net for all public info and uses it to generate goodish good enough things.

Send 5 people to art school is cheaper, maybe if they are talented enough even faster... you end up with 5 guys who can make way better art... it takes them a few man hours and it comes out better then the best AI art... but it takes each of those 5 lets say 3-6 man hours so in a week of working 40 hours each you can get 30-50 good peices of art.

That AI can make okish ones any time all day and can make more the 50 an hour.

It allows people who can do art (and were at best grabing screen shots of deviant art) the abailty to generat some bad and some okay art... those artists can still blow the art away (from what I have seen)

It cost more (manhours and money) to train the 5 computer programers then to pay them and build the AI then it took to train the Artists and have them make even a year (49 work weeks lets be nice for time off) over 2,200 peices of real good art... lets say they get a 3 year head start and a few of them ZOOM out art in that last year and they get 7,000 peices of amazing like 2e elmour art... that AI can then make 50 a minute around the clock until it catches up... 140 minutes... so by hour 5 or 6 it's double the out put at half to a third the skill... by day 10 its 100s of times more art, even if its lesser quality, and it can learn and grow and get better (in theory)

so what is the problem it is solveing... the same one quickbooks and turbotax did. Take professional level work and let some dude off the street use a program to get 'close enough' but if you want something done well you find a CPA.

 

[KYRON45]

The cat is out of the bag. AI is out there. It's doing the thing it does for the people who want to use it. Sure the current CEO of XYZ corp is against it....but ask yourself, what is the lifespan of a CEO?
I'm sure that someone someplace at some point said, "we'll never use those new fangled motor car things." Then he died and his son took over the business and he needed to make more money faster so he bought some cars. That guy never learned how to design and build the cars he bought....he just bought them.

AI learning for free from all of the stuff that already exists is the same as a kid in a garage who didn't go to school to learn how to build the next big thing. The concept of ownership is changing. Even the precious OGL is people using a thing someone else put time and effort into creating that they themselves are just cut and pasting. Or is it cutting and pasting? I'm using an open source language here so what do i know?

Does no one see the irony of complaining about technology while sitting at a computer that is connected to the internet?
Complain probably isn't the right word in this context but i think my point speaks for itself. Of course it might not. I have had a lot of caffeine today.

Wait...what was i talking about?

 

[Vaalingrade]

Every time someone compares AI to actual technological advances and compares genuine concerns about this massive cash grab to complaints against genuine innovation, an angel rips its wings off and eats them.

Generative AI is not an innovation. It's not learning. It's not improving anything. It's autocorrect in lipstick trying being trotted out under the guise of General AI as a scam.

 

[KYRON45]

Every time someone compares AI to actual technological advances and compares genuine concerns about this massive cash grab to complaints against genuine innovation, an angel rips its wings off and eats them.

Generative AI is not an innovation. It's not learning. It's not improving anything. It's autocorrect in lipstick trying being trotted out under the guise of General AI as a scam.

Oh I have no skin in this game. I’m just bored at work and it passes the time.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Tell that to the wingless, choking angels.