EA Staff Are Reportedly Less Than Happy With Their Much-Hyped AI “Helpers”

Despite the negative press and questions surrounding the ethical use of training data, Generative AI is making a significant impact on game development, with many of the industry’s major players now utilising the technology to help create and enhance their products.

Electronic Arts has made no secret of the fact that it’s betting the farm on AI; last year, the company talked openly about its plans to leverage the tech, and, more recently, it has inked a deal with Stability AI to “co-develop transformative generative AI models, tools, and workflows that empower EA’s artists, designers, and developers to reimagine how games are made”.

Not everything the AI hype machine touches is turning to gold, however. We’re now seeing reports from Business Insider (via Tweak Town) that EA’s internal chatbot, ReefGPT, is making life more challenging for the company’s beleaguered human developers.

Sources have told Business Insider that ReefGPT is actually increasing the amount of work EA’s staff have to contend with, as it is responsible for creating faulty code that then needs to be manually fixed. Other sources claim that EA’s AI tools are susceptible to hallucinations (a common issue with AI agents); again, these need to be fixed by hand, which slows everything down and nullifies any time-saving benefit AI would have introduced.

On top of all of this is the feeling among EA staff that these AI tools are effectively going to replace them in time, which, as you can imagine, is hardly good for morale. Following the recent announcement that EA has been acquired by the PIF (Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund), Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners for $55 billion, it’s easy to see why the company’s ‘fleshbag’ staff are less than happy right now.

One of the few companies out there which is resisting the use of Generative AI in its workflow is Nintendo – at least that’s what the official line was last year.