According to GameSpot, during CD Projekt Red’s latest earnings briefing, Joint CEO Michał Nowakowski addressed the company’s use of AI. He stated the technology offers “meaningful” and “real” benefits, primarily in boosting productivity areas. Nowakowski firmly rejected the idea that AI could ever create an entire game, saying, “I’m unaware of such a situation–where AI could ‘sit down and make games.'” He also pushed back on linking recent industry layoffs to AI, attributing them instead to project cancellations. Looking ahead, he said he does not imagine broader AI adoption leading to a net loss of jobs overall.
The Practical Reality Check
Here’s the thing: Nowakowski’s comments are a refreshing dose of sanity in a hype-saturated conversation. He’s basically drawing a line between tool and creator. Using AI to automate tedious tasks, generate placeholder textures, or even help with code debugging? That’s a no-brainer for productivity. It’s the same evolution we saw with more powerful scripting tools or physics engines. But the romantic (or terrifying) idea of an AI conjuring up the next Witcher from a text prompt? That’s pure fantasy, and it’s good to hear a major studio head say it outright. They’re already using it, but as a helper, not a replacement for the armies of artists, writers, and designers that build their worlds.
Layoffs And The AI Scapegoat
His point about layoffs is crucial, too. It’s easy to point at AI as the boogeyman for the industry’s brutal year of cuts. But Nowakowski, who would certainly know, says it’s not that simple. He attributes it to “project closures.” Think about it: a big-budget game gets canceled. The team working on it, sometimes hundreds of people, suddenly doesn’t have a project. That’s a management and economic issue, not an AI one. Blaming AI lets poor planning and an overheated market off the hook. Now, could AI down the line change team sizes for certain tasks? Possibly. But right now, the turmoil has more traditional causes.
The Long Game On Jobs
Nowakowski’s stance that he doesn’t foresee net job losses is optimistic, but it echoes a common historical argument. The idea is that technology shifts the types of jobs available rather than just eliminating them wholesale. The introduction of CGI didn’t kill film jobs; it created entirely new special effects and VFX careers. The risk, as Nvidia’s Jensen Huang noted, is for workers whose entire role is a single, repetitive “task” that can be automated. The future game developer might need to be an AI whisperer, managing and directing these tools, rather than manually performing every step. It’s a skills evolution, not necessarily a pure reduction.
Why This Debate Is So Messy
So why is this so controversial? A huge part of it is definition. “AI” in games isn’t new. The behavior trees controlling an enemy in *Cyberpunk 2077*? That’s a form of AI. The new, heated debate is almost entirely about generative AI—tools that create new text, code, images, or audio. And that tech is already baked into common dev software like Unreal Engine and Photoshop. The backlash against Larian’s CEO shows how tense developers are about it. They’re worried about ethics, copyright, and job security. CD Projekt Red’s take, as reported by GamesRadar, seems to be a middle path: use the tool, gain the efficiency, but keep humans firmly in the creative driver’s seat. It’s a pragmatic approach from a studio that knows a thing or two about building massive, complex worlds.
