Father of PlayStation Ken Kutaragi believes that in 2-3 years AI will replace video games and generate content in real time

Ken Kutaragi is best known as the father of the PlayStation. He led development of the PS1, PS2, and PS3, then left Sony in 2007. Now he runs an AI firm and believes video games will soon give way to entertainment generated by neural networks.

Speaking at a recent university panel, he told 4Gamer:

AI will transform games into entertainment, and change human sensibilities. The global game market is currently worth over 30 trillion Yen, but it might reach around 3,000 trillion Yen. If that happens, it won't even be called a game anymore.

Kutaragi pointed to early 3D fighting games like Virtua Fighter and Battle Arena Toshinden as proof of how fast technology moved in the mid-1990s. Studios have grown enormously since then, but graphical progress has slowed to a crawl. In his view, the real innovation now happens in AI.

He added that work on real-time video and music generation is already underway behind the scenes.

Behind the scenes, research and development is advancing on the real-time generation of video and music using AI. It's predicted that this technology will be capable of operating at the same speed as today's game consoles sometime around 2028 to 2029. When that happens, all content will change. Communication and imagination will become content. Imagining things will become content itself.

The quotes were translated from Japanese, so some nuance may have been lost. Kutaragi has deep ties to the AI industry. After leaving Sony, he took over Cyber AI Entertainment, a consulting firm that helps other companies build AI technology, and Ascent Robotics, a startup developing AI-driven software and machines.

Beyond games, Kutaragi also touched on user interfaces. He noted that the iPhone UI changes year after year to become easier to use, though he sees a downside to that approach.

But current human-centered design is too much of a pandering to humans, and what happens is that users lose the opportunity to think for themselves and end up not understanding what's inside the hardware and software.

Kutaragi sees a paradigm shift as the way out. Technology will become "AI-centered. Because AI has to surpass humans." People will have to learn how to communicate with AI, just as they think about how they talk with friends and family.