Old & Busted: ChatGPT. New Hotness: GameGPT?

Thoughts on the future of game development in an age of generative AI

I remember the firestorm of intense emotions that went through my head as I saw the first tweets of people posting articles and essays written by ChatGPT, followed almost immediately by tweets of everyone in tech and media (as well as their grandmothers) losing their collective minds over The End of Human Labor as We Know It™️ (or “TEOHLAWKI” short).

I’m not going to lie, I was initially quick to join the panicked fray. How could I not? I’m a professional writer, and a development like ChatGPT as described was supposed to represent an existential threat to my livelihood and that of my colleagues, who were to be the first dominoes to fall as robots gradually took over everyone’s jobs (“First, they came for the writing jobs…”). You know, TEOHLAWKI™️.

That is, until I bothered to actually try ChatGPT out for myself. Then I realized, TEOHLAWKI™️ is as much of a threat to my career as Elon Musk is to the FTC.

That said, this new generation of emergent generative AI doohickeys could have a massive, and overall positive effect (hopefully) in video game development. Let’s explore why!

ChatGPT: Witty, or Sh*tty?

Ok, let’s look at the broader picture, before we zoom into gaming specifically.