‘Nier: Automata’ Director Predicts AI Could Cost Game Creators Their Jobs In the Future

Nier: Automata director Yoko Taro opened up about AI in a recent interview and gave a chilling prediction about how the new technology could impact the gaming industry. The visionary director at Square Enix explained that creators could end up relegated to “bards” who talk about games rather than create them.

Games Industry Could be heading towards a ‘Nier Automata’ Future Due To AI

In an April interview with Famitsu, Nier‘s Yoko Taro participated in a roundtable with fellow creators Kazutaka Kodaka (Danganronpa), Kotaro Uchikoshi (Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward), and Jiro Ishii (Sakura Wars). During the conversation, the prolific creators discussed the future of writing in the video game industry. Specifically, how the emergence of AI could reshape the landscape of how creatives are employed.

However, Nier Automata creator Yoko Taro shared a potentially prophetic prediction of where the industry is heading. “I also think that AI will make all game creators unemployed. In 50 years, game creators may be treated like bards.” As someone who loves Taro’s unique visions for games, this is a heartbreaking thought, if I’m being honest. I actually hold Taro in the same league as a Quentin Tarantino or David Lynch. His games are one of a kind — and you just know when you are experiencing his work. So, the idea of AI eventually replacing that kind of genius is incredibly depressing.

Nier Automata‘s Yoko Taro also said he believes that AI will eventually be able to imitate an artist’s own decisions. For example, if a person generated a scenario that David Lynch might have written? The AI could anticipate the changes Lynch would have made. “I think a good AI would be able to anticipate that and pose as the person in question. For example, by not outputting the manuscript exactly as instructed.”

We should listen to yoko taro

Look, Yoko Taro has always been way ahead of his time. Even going back to Nier: Automata, the Japanese creative tackled themes about AI and whether we lose our humanity to technological advances. But the iconic developer has also never shied away from seeing the beauty in technology. In a more hopeful tone, Taro gave his take on how AI could give players more choice.

“I think that in the future, we will move from an era where we have to imitate the style of our favorite creators to an era where we can have our favorite scenarios generated. AI will determine the preferences of users and skillfully generate route branchings that they would want to read, and the recommendation capabilities will continue to improve.”

So, essentially, players will be able to generate their own game scenarios instead of copying other creators. In theory, that could be really cool. But I still think we need unique visionaries like Yoko Taro. The full interview discussion is definitely thought-provoking and worth checking out. However, I really do think we should listen to Yoko Taro’s predictions, given his instincts about technology have always been spot-on.