Another generative AI controversy has arrived in the tabletop community. Except this time it isn't in its use in a miniature painting competition. It is an official statement by Hasbro's CEO on using generative AI for future Dungeons & Dragons products. And the reasoning is tenuous at best.
Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks, Dungeons & Dragons, and AI
According to a report by Christian Hoffer for EN World, Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks spoke at a Goldman-Sachs event about how AI products could support Dungeons & Dragons and other Hasbro brands.
Cocks was asked if the implementation of AI could "bend the cost curve" in terms of entertainment development. Cocks' response was the following:
"Inside of development, we've already been using AI. It's mostly machine-learning-based AI or proprietary AI as opposed to a ChatGPT approach. We will deploy it significantly and liberally internally as both a knowledge worker aid and as a development aid. I'm probably more excited though about the playful elements of AI. If you look at a typical D&D player....I play with probably 30 or 40 people regularly. There's not a single person who doesn't use AI somehow for either campaign development or character development or story ideas. That's a clear signal that we need to be embracing it. We need to do it carefully, we need to do it responsibly, we need to make sure we pay creators for their work, and we need to make sure we're clear when something is AI-generated. But the themes around using AI to enable user-generated content, using AI to streamline new player introduction, using AI for emergent storytelling, I think you're going to see that not just our hardcore brands like D&D but also multiple of our brands."
Even when taking into account Cocks' intended audience, this statement seems to go against the central appeal and joy of playing TTRPGs. The hobby is, at its core, a deeply creative communal experience. One where the product complements the inherent human experience.
Generative AI, by contrast is deeply uncreative, derivative, and a form of theft. Even if a table uses generative AI at their table, that is in a private personal context. It is a far cry from using it to develop a commercial product that involves paying artists for their work.
This tension between the creative and business implementation of generative AI has been ongoing with Hasbro. Wizards of the Coast had to restate a ban of AI artwork in their D&D books, There was even hand-wringing over Hasbro posting a job listing for AI Engineering on Linkedin.
There is even pushback within Wizards of the Coast's own staff. Greg Tito, Wizards of the Coast's Communications Director, posted on Bluesky, "I'm deeply mistrustful of AI and don't want people using it anywhere near my D&D campaigns."
