(Image credit: Embark)

Regardless of how players feel about the technology, AI is increasingly encroaching on both the behind-the-scenes game development and the final product that lands in players' hands. Just recently, Sony patented an AI-powered 'ghost' to guide you through games, Razer has made a holographic AI assistant in a test tube, golden child Larian is using generative AI in its development process for Divinity, and the biggest shooters on the market, Call of Duty and Battlefield 6, are locked in a battle to sneak in as much terrible AI art as possible. It's grim out there.

And then there's Embark Studios, which has used AI in both The Finals and its latest and greatest hit, Arc Raiders. Both prominently feature AI voices, for example, which has once again sparked debate over the ethics of using AI to generate assets for games that used to be created individually by people, whether artists or voice actors.

Perhaps to help clear the air, in a recent interview with GamesBeat's Dean Takahashi, Embark Studios CEO Patrick Söderlund expressed, "I think people have misconceptions about what [AI] means. I mean to us, we don't use AI to not have to hire people, or to replace people, or to replace job groups, that's not the point."

More specifically, Söderlund claims that Embark "couldn't have built" The Finals or Arc Raiders, nor sustained aggressive live-service support for them, without the use of AI in streamlining development: "it can be a tremendous help to developers and has a tremendous benefit to players."