With the official announcement of SEGA's new Crazy Taxi game, comes not only a huge wave of excitement, but also a huge wave of doubt seeing as a few keen eyed retro gamers saw that SEGA has placed a small AI note on their Steam page for Crazy Taxi: World Tour.
The note is a AI Generated Content Disclosure that informs gamers that "AI is used as a support tool". Which is a very vague way of saying, yeah we use it. But in what level of use is what many are still questioning. "Tools" can mean many things, and although they haven't mentioned that it creates content for htem, the "generated" side of the disclosure would suggest otheriwse.
The guys over at GameInformer got in touch with SEGA to ask for a response regarding the use of AI in their upcoming game and if they could clear it up for many fans of the franchise:
At SEGA Corporation, generative AI is available as an optional support tool for developers, enabling our teams to focus more on creative tasks and ultimately focus on what matters most: delivering better games to our consumers.
Generative AI was used to support our teams during the development of background assets for ”Crazy Taxi: World Tour”. Assets generated were still subject to review by the development team. No AI was used in reference to the performers in the game states SEGA.
I think SEGA need to tread very carefully in the future when integrating AI tools into game development. The reason we as gamers enjoy video games, is because it's a form of art, made by human brains and creative talent, not the fact its made by robots. For me personally, to make a final decision on the game I need to see a more formal response from SEGA on how AI is used on a specific level.
