I’m fully aware that AI might never go anywhere, and I’ll admit it can genuinely help with workflows. Still, something about a game being made entirely by AI gives me the shivers.
The quality of such a game remains to be seen, but in typical Elon Musk fashion, he believes we’ll see xAI — his own artificial intelligence — create a “great AI-generated game before the end of next year,” and a movie that is “at least watchable.”
Musk keeps making promises about Grok and xAI, clearly convinced this AI boom will continue well into next year. While AI can be useful in certain areas, and some of Musk’s ideas around xAI — like using it to make new discoveries — sound promising, the thought of it making an entire game feels concerning. It could easily usher in a new wave of, dare I say, “slop,” much like the NFT era of gaming.
What xAI is actually building
It’s an ambitious vision that Musk has for xAI. Beyond its chatbot — which even has an anime-style avatar — he wants the company to be more than just another image generator or conversational AI. His goal is to build an AI that actually “understands” the real world. If it can truly create interactive virtual environments, it could drastically cut development costs, something that’s currently crippling the AAA space.
xAI has brought on talent from Nvidia, including Zeeshan Patel and Ethan He, both with experience in simulation and world modelling. Musk has been pushing the term “world models,” which refers to AI systems that learn how objects interact, move, and respond to physics, rather than just producing text or images. These world models are what would make AI-generated environments feel realistic and dynamic.
The company is also hiring “video game tutors,” offering up to $100 an hour for designers and testers who can teach its AI what makes a game actually fun. Musk’s goal is to minimize human input as much as possible, relying on AI for the heavy lifting while keeping humans in charge of oversight and direction.
Earlier this month, Grok — xAI’s chatbot — received major upgrades to its image and video generation capabilities, showing that the company’s technology is evolving alongside competitors like Gemini and ChatGPT.
Why this could be bad for gaming and entertainment
Whilst Musk still wants some level of human involvement, it worries me that this could usher in a company that cares little for that input. We could soon see a wave of games made entirely through AI, possibly without even disclosing it. Gaming is a craft built on emotion, personal perspective, and creativity, and AI risks stripping that away.
If AI does become more heavily involved, where does it leave the thousands of creatives who are just starting out or those who’ve spent years honing their craft? It’s a scary premise, and one that doesn’t excite me. Look at Microsoft, which already makes employees use Copilot. It’s not hard to imagine a future where studios force developers to rely on AI and even cut staff to save costs where AI can take over.
This doesn’t even touch on the ethical side. If AI models are trained on existing games without disclosure or consent from the original developers, we could see legal battles over who truly owns the content being made. That’s not speculation, either. Sora 2 recently generated Nintendo IPs without permission, and Nintendo is notorious for taking legal action against anyone who uses its properties without consent.
The gaming industry already faces enough problems. Game prices are rising, consoles are getting more expensive, and subscription services are becoming harder to justify. Yet there isn’t a single part of me that believes AI will solve these creative or financial issues, at least not for people like you and me who just want to enjoy games or watch movies as a hobby.
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