AI in game development and AI in games, two different conversations worth separating - any thoughts

[Brittle Ronan]

Q: What is the difference between AI being used to make games and AI being used in games, and why does it matter?

A: AI in game development means using generative tools to create assets, write dialogue, generate level geometry, or assist in code. This is happening extensively and the debates around it involve labour, quality, and disclosure.

AI in games means the behaviour systems that control enemies, NPCs, and world responses. This has always existed as what is called game AI and is distinct from machine learning. The interesting 2026 development is the use of actual language models to power NPC dialogue and behaviour dynamically rather than from scripted trees. Pragmata uses this for some interactions in ways that reviewers have highlighted

[Slay40]

The conflation of these two things in gaming discourse causes more confusion than almost any other terminology problem in the space

[StringTheory83]

Game AI in the traditional sense, pathfinding, behaviour trees, finite state machines, has been sophisticated for decades and has nothing to do with the current AI moment

[RedKnight]

The LLM powered NPC dialogue in games is genuinely new and raises genuinely interesting questions about consistency, content moderation, and what players might get the system to say

[Oscar_57]

Skyrim NPC conversation trees feel primitive compared to the natural language interactions some games are experimenting with. The gap between those two generations of NPC design is enormous

[Odd Maverick]

The content moderation question for LLM NPCs is a real problem that developers are still figuring out. Players will immediately try to get NPCs to say things the designers did not intend

[Omega]

The players immediately trying to break the system is both a problem and a valid form of engagement with the systems. The best game design expects and accommodates player exploration

[Coder65]

Procedural generation is the older cousin of this question. Minecraft and No Man's Sky use algorithmic generation rather than AI but the player experience of apparent infinite variety is similar

[Seb83]

The asset generation side of AI in development is where the labour questions are most acute. Voice actors and concept artists are being replaced by AI generated equivalents in some studios

[Hannah56]

The distinction between replaced by AI and assisted by AI is being used to obscure how much labour displacement is actually happening. Both things exist and they are not the same

[Neon Grace]

Still waiting for GTA6