You’ll finally be able to know what games on Steam have used AI in their development, and Steam will be able to publish even more games.
Valve’s online game provider, Steam, has just published new guidelines for developers that will require them to disclose whether AI has been used to make their games.
With more than 14,000 games published on the Steam platform last year, it’s hard to know which games to buy. Adding AI to the mix makes it even trickier; as budgets get tighter, developers are turning more and more to AI to help them create code, visual assets, and more. These new guidelines will help us all know which games they want to support in the, as Valve says, “legally murky space of AI technology.”
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It will also help Valve publish more games, as the new disclosure rules will allow the retailer to list games it has previously kept off the platform in the absence of a clear policy.
Developers now have a new AI disclosure section to fill out when submitting a game to Steam. The company separates AI use into two general categories. Pre-generated content is any kind of art, code, sound, or other content that was created with the help of AI tools. Devs will have to certify that nothing illegal or (directly) infringing has been used, either. Live-generated content is anything created by AI while the game is running. Anything in this category will need to make sure nothing illegal is generated during gameplay, and devs will have to explain what sort of guardrails they’ve included to make sure of it.
The company has also created a way for players to report any illegal content inside games with Live-generated AI content, too. Steam will not release any Adult-Only sexual content created with Live-Generated AI, either.
Valve also apologized in the statement for the lateness of its response, stating, “We don’t feel like we serve our players or developer partners by rushing into decisions that have this much complexity.”
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