Todd Howard says AI is 'not a fad' but won't use it to replace handcrafted human creativity

Todd Howard – game director of Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5 – has weighed in on AI in game development, and his position is one of careful observation. In a February 18 interview with Kinda Funny Games, he pushed back against the idea that the current large language model boom is just a passing trend, while admitting that exactly how the technology might fit into game development is still far from clear.

"It's certainly not a fad. I think the AI answer now becomes 'ask me in six months,' right? It changes so much what you're seeing out there. For us, we're being incredibly cautious."

Howard confirmed that Bethesda is experimenting with AI for data-heavy tasks, primarily on the technical side of the production pipeline.

"We can't ignore it, in terms of it's coming, it's changing, every few months there's a new model, particularly on the tech side with code or productivity or other things. It can help us get better at some big data tasks that just take us a lot of time, that we wish were done now so we can move onto the creative stuff."

At the same time, Howard drew a clear line – AI is not being used to generate any content that ends up in the studio's games.

"We're not using it to generate anything. I think there's an element of artistic intention that is essential to what we do and what others do. And if you look across things outside of AI, go back a hundred years, this idea of craftsmen, I still think craftsmen, and that handcrafted human intention, is what makes things special, and that's where we want to be."

If AI ends up smoothing out the technical side of game development and freeing up more room for genuine creativity, most players would probably welcome that. It's a different story, though, if the technology starts to replace human creative vision and the craftsmanship behind it.