We're finally talking about AI, ft. David 'Rez' Graham and Luke Dicken

AI is no longer being treated as a side topic in game development; it’s becoming part of the conversation about how games get made, who does the work, and what that work is worth. David “Rez” Graham and Luke Dicken center the discussion on AI techniques, but the practical angle is broader: how studios decide whether these tools meaningfully improve production or just add noise.

That matters because AI touches multiple parts of the pipeline, from content generation and iteration speed to the way teams think about labor and specialization. For programmers, artists, designers, and producers, the question isn’t simply whether AI can do a task, but whether it saves time, improves quality, or creates new bottlenecks elsewhere.

The conversation also frames AI as a workplace issue, not just a technical one. As teams evaluate these tools, they’re also weighing ownership, reliability, and the long-term value of human expertise in a production environment that increasingly prizes efficiency.

The exact implementation details and studio-specific use cases aren’t the point here; the important shift is that AI is being discussed as a real production concern rather than a speculative future. For developers, that makes this a useful moment to compare notes on where AI helps, where it falls short, and what tradeoffs are acceptable in shipped work.