Quake Proves AI Isn’t the Way Forward

Microsoft has released an AI generated version of Quake 2 and it’s proof, as if proof is needed, that AI isn’t the way forward.

The version of the game is buggy, hard to control, and breaks when you look up and then back down. It’s just not fun, and the generation part of it doesn’t add a thing. No amount of “a computer made this” makes it better.

It comes hot off the back of the terrible Ghibli crap people were obsessed with a week ago. That also proved the limitations of this tech.

What both things are missing is the human soul that goes into art to elevate it above… well, this. Most people probably don’t actively care about the tiny details that make up the whole. But they’re painfully obvious when they’re gone. You don’t get a Ghibli film by being good enough. You don’t get a Quake by being good enough.

We’re not at good enough yet. I expect we will be, one day. And it’ll never elevate an inch above that. Nobody wants to watch AI generated films or play AI generated games, whatever they say on social media.

That’s the painful thing these businesses are going to learn and learn quickly. AI as a tool is entirely limited by the fact it doesn’t understand human emotions. It doesn’t know if a section is fun or scary or exhilarating. All it can do is chew up other people’s work and make an approximation. It has no opinions. It doesn’t have the range of experiences necessary to truly tell a story.

It’s a lot of time and money invested in something that can’t actually do the thing it aims to do.

AI: Not the Quake You’re Looking For

The best they can hope for is that it gets to a point where this stuff assists actual people to do their work. That is more their goal then entirely generated games, for obvious reasons.

It’s a nice sci-fi concept. A robot helper to do the grunt work, freeing up creators to focus on the important things. But it’s just that, a sci-fi concept. Quake 2 and the Ghibli stuff are high level things and it fails at the basics. But the issues don’t change regardless of how low level you get. AI doesn’t know if a texture is working. It doesn’t understand if a human character actually looks human. It doesn’t know why certain instruments feel lonely and some feel triumphant. No matter how much you feed it, it will never know.

A computer with the ability to create thousands of options very quickly is a very handy thing to have. It’s an idea generator that can work visually. It is not a replacement for the designers, the composers, the writers who pour their everything into every line.

I don’t think that will be enough for the people at the top, who see this tech changing the way we consume entertainment. I recently saw an unfinished documentary that suggested the future of art is in second-long bites that we flick through like it’s Tiktok. Never the depth, but never the same, thanks to the infinite possibilities of the machines.

What a terrifying thought.