Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI, has ventured into the video game industry with a huge new venture—a video game studio for producing video games with artificial intelligence. The news created shockwaves in the video game and artificial intelligence industries, causing controversies on what the future of video game design and video game development looks.
Musk’s new gaming venture is a growth of his artificial intelligence company, xAI, whose top-of-the-line model, called Grok 3, has been recently unveiled for higher-order reason and imaginative use. Musk intends to use AI for injecting novel innovation into a video game industry, in his opinion, stagnating under corporate rule.
This move follows a Twitter spat between Musk and creator of Dogecoin, Billy Markus, who had been criticizing modern video games for their ideational deviations and lack of originality. Musk, in agreement with Markus, had said corporate ownership has stifled imagination, and hence, led to formulaic and uninspiring titles. To this, Musk said xAI will be opening up a game studio with the purpose of rebooting the industry.
At the heart of xAI’s video game ambitions remains Grok 3, hailed by Musk as being “the smartest AI ever made.” The powerful model can revolutionize game design with its ability for automating complex creative processes, from generating assets for use in a game, developing adaptive narratives, and modifying gameplay.
Adding to the suspense, Musk has also expressed interest in collaborating with Google DeepMind, and more notably, on their recently announced AI-driven video game project, Genie 2. The world model can generate interactive 3D worlds, and this could revolutionize video game design. If such a collaboration occurs, then the realms of video game design with AI could be widened even more.
Long before being a founder-turned-billionaire, Musk had a stint in video game development. In his teenage years, he created a space video game called Blastar, for $500. Throughout his career, he has repeatedly mentioned his passion for video games, sharing experiences of playing Overwatch, Deus Ex, and Cyberpunk 2077. Some of his achievements in video games have been questioned, but there’s no dispute of Musk’s identification with being a creator and a gamer.
His love of video games, and his inclination towards testing the boundaries of what can be achieved with technology, suggests his foray into video game design isn’t a whim, but a planned effort to shake up a different industry.
The gaming industry has welcomed this with anticipation and trepidation. Some believe that use of artificial intelligence can result in more realistic and richer experiences, and more compacted production times. But others caution against too much reliance on artificial intelligence, fearing this may homogenize the design of video games, stripping away the human imagination that makes them enjoyable.
Some industry insiders also questioned the employment of AI for video game development, more notably on job disreplacement. If video game worlds can be created with minimal human input by such AIs as Genie 2 and Grok 3, what happens to the artists, authors, and coders whose efforts today fuel the industry? These questions will be some of the key points of the on-going debate on the employment of AI for video games.
Musk’s announcement has been made against the background of revived questioning of his personal life. His father, Errol Musk, recently made negative remarks on his fathering abilities in a tell-all interview, fuelling talks of their strained relationship. Social media has also been filled with speculation of Musk fathering a 13th child, for which there has been no confirmation. Though these controversies in his private life are unrelated to his entrepreneurial ambitions, they’ve also contributed towards Musk being considered a divisive figure. Some people regard his ambitious ventures as confirmation of his visionary genius, and others regard them as distractions from his current responsibilities.