Valve Is Not Discouraging the Use of AI, but Will Reject Games That Use Copyright-Infringing AI Assets: Report

gadgets.ndtv.com:

Valve isn't discouraging the use of AI-generated assets in game development, but will take action on any titles that infringe copyright laws. Last month, Reddit user ‘u/potterharry97' claimed on the r/aigamedev subreddit that Valve was unwilling to publish his undisclosed game, which allegedly included assets that were generated using AI. The developer alluded to having further improved upon those assets by hand, only to get rejected again due to copyright issues and being offered a refund on purchased app credits. With the game industry grappling with the use of AI tools in their work, the famously tight-lipped publisher, which owns PC gaming storefront Steam, has now clarified that it's simply evolving its policy.

“We know it [AI] is a constantly evolving tech, and our goal is not to discourage the use of it on Steam; instead, we're working through how to integrate it into our already-existing review policies,” Valve said in a prepared statement to Polygon. “Stated plainly, our review process is a reflection of current copyright law and policies, not an added layer of our opinion. As these laws and policies evolve over time, so will our process.” The use of AI-generated art has sparked multiple debates regarding plagiarism in recent times, where the software simply repurposes existing art assets from corners of the Internet and mushes them together in a desired style. Valve is trying to prevent that from happening by encouraging innovation, as long as the developers use the work with ‘appropriate commercial licenses.' Basically, if Valve detects that you don't own the rights to a certain asset, it won't be accepted for distribution on Steam.

Valve is a bit unclear on how it would determine whether a game lacks