The workload is the least problematic aspect of AI. Although, I do think this could become a major problem... what if we get to a point where you don't need to learn much about principles of game development? I agree that current technology isn't there yet, but if eventually you can generate entire games using a few prompts, then your "it still takes effort" angle will disappear. You will succumb to your own justification as your potential customers decide more and more to simply generate their own game instead...
Anyway, the main issues right now, at least in my opinion, are leeching off other people's work, and depletion of real-world resources. And although the reduced workload isn't my first line of attack, it does still bother me a little bit. It comes off as lazy. I don't agree with you that "you have to understand and learn its mechanics." Unless you can program your own AI, you don't understand the mechanics. All you understand is that if you type in something different, you'll get a different result. It's like saying that someone who knows how to hit the gas and break pedals and turn the steering wheel, understands the mechanics of a vehicle. But all they actually need to understand is the interface.
Viewing post in Discussion about using AI in game dev
the main issues right now, at least in my opinion, are leeching off other people's work
How are your thoughts about using a game engine?
The leeching is only seen negative because some artists do not want to have their art be teaching material. Yet in sofware and especially game development, basing your work on other people's work is a fundamental principle. Actually it would not be possible for most developers to create something like a game, without relying on previous works, libaries and full blown game engines. Often even the game principle itself is copied.
Usually, teachers consent to teach, and get paid for their work.
Here, you have a company building a software using source material it has not paid for and selling it to you.
Theses AI tools aren’t individuals who are learning, they are products developped by some of the biggest companies in the world.
In order to build the software in question, companies needs a country level of energy (and water).
I don’t like unity and epic, but last I check, they didn’t directly subsidized coal plants, unlike the ai companies https://archive.is/NXe3D
Making games using those tools devalue the craft of making games on top of justifying bad actors against the climate crisis.
I understand the drive for using thoses tools, they seem cheap to use, but the costs is just deferred and we will all be paying it. Some of us have already started paying that cost and it feel sour when people are denying the obvious harms they already cause and the potential for future disaster they represent.
Here, you have a company building a software using source material it has not paid for and selling it to you.
So your argument would fall flat against all models that use licensed source material. And against ai material that was not purchased. You know you can download a model and create stuff on your home pc? I tried it once. That consumes less power than me playing a game.
In order to build the software in question, companies needs a country level of energy (and water)
Uhm. Nope. What really needs country level of energy is crypto currency. Datacenters just meet the demand of all the internet and stuff. Around 2% of global energy was used on that even before AI. Hating on datacenter energy consumption also means, you should not use google maps to navigate. Or browse on Itch, for that matter. Or watching Netflix and Co.
I really wonder why people now use all these arguments against the evil ai, but I never noticed the same outcry against crypto. And crypto is many times worse in that regard.
Anyway, depending on the use case, a search query to an ai system might even be more efficient than using the same quere several times on a normal internet search till you find what you are looking for. And if it would be more costly but no one would pay for it, it will dwindle down.
But we are actually speaking about ai in games, are we not. Do you think the devs struggling with budget use a lot of money on AI art? If they had that kind of money, they could easily pay real artists. You can download an ai system and use it on your own pc. Not all those systems are from the evil big tech companies. Some are open source.
Making games using those tools devalue the craft of making games
So my question to you too:
How are your thoughts about using a game engine?
Juding from your post, you might consider using a game engine as devaluing the craft. There be amateurs churning out a "game" by clicking some stuff together and call themselves developers, after all.
I don't see what is relevant about using resources made by others, with permission of course. I even pay for them sometimes. But artists or coders or anyone else who has had their work flushed down a digital toilet have -zero- chance of getting paid, or even recognized. The reason is that what comes out the other side is akin to a sewer pipe dumping the whole mix as one homogenized stew.
Now if people want to train on their own datasets that's fine. To be honest, I feel that this might be a self-correcting problem... or perhaps, not a problem in the first place. There's a lot of talk about how "this changes everything", but so far nothing really innovative has come out of it. Will it ever?