Summary
Valve has issued new rules on howSteamwill approach AI content, seemingly changing the platform’s previous stance. Generative AI has been a divisive area within the gaming industry, partly fueled bystudios utilizing AI for art, writing, and other content-generation processes. Steam’s latest update on its rules for AI content might widen this debate further about where the industry is headed with the technology.
Back in June 2023, users claimed that Steam was banning games that ship with AI-generated content. In response,Valve clarified its stance on AI content, stating that the company doesn’t wish to discourage using AI tools in game development and that it was working to integrate it into existing review policies. Valve further pointed out that any ban on such content was a “reflection of current copyright law and policies” rather than an indication of the company’s opinions. Now, Steam appears to have changed its stance on AI-generated content following its latest update.
Valve is making changes to how the platform will manage games with AI-generated content. Developers are now required to disclose if their games use pre-generated content like art, code, or audio via AI. As part of the Steam Distribution Agreement, developers also promise that this AI-generated content isn’t “illegal or infringing.” Additionally, this disclosure applies to live-generated AI content as well. Here, developers would need to specify the guardrails put in place to ensure the game doesn’t generate illegal content onSteam.
The platform’s update also includes a new mechanism that allows users to report illegal live-generated AI content. Players would be able to report the illegal content directly viaSteam’s in-game overlay. Interestingly, while this means that Steam is now more open to games developed with AI-generated content, the platform has one notable exception. Valve states that it currently won’t allow adults-only sexual content created with live-generated AI. Nevertheless, the company points out that it will continue to explore the area, particularly in the legal process around AI, and will “revisit this decision when necessary.”
As of now, the gaming industry is split on where generative AI plays a role in games. While some companies are opting to go all-in on AI, a significant chunk of the sector has expressed concerns about how the technology could upend existing jobs and harm the outlook of games overall. These concerns have been further deepened following the recentagreement between SAG-AFRA and Replica Studios on AI, that would allow actors' voices to be replicated in video games. Now, with Steam’s own updated rules on AI-generated content in games, it will be interesting to see how the industry moves forward in the coming months.
