Since I was little I have liked video games and computers, and as expected, I always dreamed of creating my own video games and thus unleashing my creativity, but being a kid I didn't have much art skills and had to make do with Microsoft Paint quality sprites. Now that I'm a little older and obviously already with a knowledge in art, at least my sprites won't make the player laugh anymore, but what if there was an AI like Stable Diffusion? Would it have made my job easier?

In this post I will talk about the use of generative AI in the development of video games or other creative works, and thus analyze its advantages in development and conceptualization, and its disadvantages if it is abused.

Generative AI, a robot without a body but with hands

Unless you haven't been online for a decade. You will already have in mind what an AI is, and maybe you hate it or love it depending on your way of thinking. AI is a computer program created by humans for different purposes, which would be the writing of text or generation of images among the most common, but the term is not limited to just that and could be simplified into actions executed by a computer without the direct interaction of a human, as if it were a futuristic science fiction robot just like WALL-E.

An AI can be considered as a tool or companion for our work, since they tend to make mistakes very often just like a human, so it won't be your replacement or it will do your job perfectly. Don't leave a social network for such a silly reason, don't be a coward.

AI in development and conceptualization

When I designed the characters for BioXARZ-2, I spent days thinking about their design and personality, and who am I kidding, I had to modify it several times so that it wasn't generic and tacky. Anyway, there is no need to explain it but conceptualizing is the first step before making this idea a reality, and obviously it's not very simple, but AI can help us conceptualize our idea, of all is just a concept and that's it, not the final art.

Now talking about the use of AI material, it really isn't a bed of roses as it seems, since an AI is a tool and therefore requires human supervision, and severe retouching in some cases, in addition, it is always recommended that you use it from a local and personalized installation.

Will it take away our jobs and bread from our tables?

Obviously not, since AI is just a tool and a human with his own style can easily surpass it when we talk about quality, but on the one hand I could say yes, but not entirely, since multiple companies have been seen using AI to save costs, and in some cases it usually has good results, or a product worthy of a meme.

To simplify it and avoid being burned at the stake, many people value quality over quality, and others just want to win without spending a single cent, and this is nothing new and is not exclusive to AI, which could be compared to hiring staff in countries with cheap labor.

Conclusion

To end this post with a timely clasp, if you are a newbie developer or want to make an almost exact representation of your idea in a concept, I think it's fine as long as you put your own touches on the work or project, because after all, AI is a tool that can help us in our work if we use it correctly, but obviously without abusing it. Regarding the use of AI material, I will say the same as above, it is fine as long as you give it your personality and do not abuse it.

To avoid confusion, I never use AI to develop my projects, since I am a decent artist I don't need it and I like to challenge my limits, although it ends up exhausting me a little.