Indie game devs slap "No Gen AI" seals on their games amid industry's push for AI use

Big Tech and dozens of companies have poured billions into AI, but not everyone is a fan of that. And recently, a group of indie game developers has introduced the “No Gen AI” seal that they slap on their games.

This seal, which can be freely used by developers, is designed to show that a game was created without relying on AI-generated content. It was developed by indie studio Polygon Treehouse and other developers.

“The idea is that developers can display it on their game’s store pages (and elsewhere) to communicate to potential players that no generative AI was used in its creation,” the page reads.

“So they can buy their game with confidence that their purchase will support developers whose ethics they agree with on this issue,” it continues.

Gamers, on the other hand, have also been telling Steam to let them filter out games that have generative AI elements in them—including Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, which recently came under fire for that.

The forum discussion, which has about 300 comments on it, suggests the filter option to be announced on Steam’s Next Fest demo experience, which has been running from February 24 to March 3, 2024.

Steam has recently allowed the use of generative AI in games, as long as developers fully disclose where and how the AI tech is being used in the game on its Steam page. Developers must also make sure that any AI-generated content is not illegal or infringing on copyrights.