CMU School of Drama


Thursday, November 09, 2023

‘We Need Humanity in Art’: Game Actors Speak Out Against Microsoft’s AI Partnership

www.inverse.com: Microsoft recently announced a new partnership with InWorld AI to create a suite of what it calls “AI game dialogue and narrative tools.” Predictably, many of the humans currently responsible for bringing that dialogue to life aren’t thrilled.

5 comments:

Sam Regardie said...

This article brings up many important points about the use of AI in creative fields and the harm that it has the potential to cause. I fully agree with all the points that humanity is a vital part of all video games and art, especially the quote about how real humans make people love fictional characters. AI technology, which has no humanity, can’t be solely or even primarily relied upon to create anything that people will enjoy for long periods. Additionally, the rise of AI will make many creative people lose their jobs and have the possibility of making society as a whole less creative. AI is a very useful tool, but I believe it is only capable of being beneficial to society if it is strictly regulated and does not take away jobs from people who are already great at them. This harms both the people work these jobs and the quality of the work

Anonymous said...

My dad is an AVID AI supporter and he also used to work for Microsoft back in the early 2000s. He still does partnerships with Microsoft and is a supporter of them as well. Listen, even I agree that their products are wonderful, extremely useful and practical (to some point. I own a microsoft computer and the design of it is slightly flawed) but besides that, it is a great company. I actually sent this article to my dad and he had some things to say about it. He honestly thought it was a great idea that microsoft was partnering with AI because it gave them more of an outlet to expand. Me on the other hand, disagree with that because as I've stated before, we are encroaching on a line where human art meets AI art. The issue is, the two lines are becoming one, and in my opinion, it is best to keep them separate. AI is taking jobs away from real people who need to support themselves and their families. We need to keep it far away from the art field.

Harshitha Bharghava said...

whoops, i submitted my comment as anonymous :(( but the comment i am replying to is mine!!

Esther said...

In the world that we live in today, it does not surprise me that companies like Microsoft want to include AI wherever they can. Many people get excited when they find out that what they are working with is an AI operated aspect because it makes it feel like we are moving forward with technological advances. As someone whose dad has worked with and for Microsoft for many years I can already see the excitement that he would get if he finds out that AI is being implemented in many aspects of the world. However, as someone who is in the arts and understands the value of the people behind the screen it is a stab in the back. Voice actors deserve to have jobs since they have been committed to this lifestyle for so long. With the world moving forward with technology it is important to see how many jobs might disappear with the new advancements.

Hikari said...

The article title, "We need humanity in art", really stuck out to me and pulled me to click on this article. I think that recently, even outside of the newspage articles, we have been seeing an increasing concern of how artificial intelligence will play into art. Art is such a human thing and connects our emotions together in a powerful way, so it is scary to see artificial intelligence enter this field and take jobs. I think it is completely reasonable that voice actors have concerns about the use of generative AI, fearing that it will replace human actors and harm the industry. Such a large company such as Microsoft announcing to develop AI game dialogue with an AI design copilot and an AI character runtime engine is huge. This is a gateway for even smaller companies to follow this model. I agree that AI lacks humanity and a call for legislation and contracts to establish boundaries, protection against misuse, and fair compensation for actors impacted by AI use in the industry should be put in place. There is a threat of AI to the careers and craft of voice actors.