Ban generative AI? Wait, what? Nonsense! Except that Paizo, publisher of popular tabletop role-playing games (TTRPG) like Pathfinder and Starfinder, said it is banning AI-created work and would update its contracts in the coming days to mandate that any work submitted must be created by a human. The ban on AI-generated content extends to the community content marketplaces for Pathfinder Infinite and Starfinder Infinite, which allow creators to sell third-party content based on Paizo’s IP.
Sadly, they are not alone. Apple just blocked a ChatGPT-powered email app called BlueMail from its app store because it wants to impose a 17-and-older age restriction. This is a disturbing trend.
I am reminded of a conversation I overheard a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away in a cantina near Mos Eisley Spaceport on Tatooine.
“Hey! We don’t serve their kind here!”
“What?”
“Your droids. They’ll have to wait outside. We don’t want them here.”
And yet… these droids were the droids we were looking for. They were the AI co-workers that helped save the galaxy (alongside Leia, Luke, Han, and Chewie).
Galactic politics aside, technophobia isn’t going to stop (or even slow down) the disruptive innovation empowered by large language models, generative AI, or any other type of machine learning. It’s just going to disadvantage those who don’t have access to it.
Is there a need for AI regulation? That is an excellent question that requires a nuanced, thoughtful response. We are certainly going to need some kind of mandatory disclosures about how models are trained, where the data came from, and metrics to assist with benchmarking the accuracy of a given model’s output. That’s at a minimum; there may be many more disclosures required to help differentiate model quality (and legitimacy). Banning AI isn’t going to get us any closer to these metrics, nor will it help train the models.
As Yoda taught us, “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.”
Author’s note: This is not a sponsored post. I am the author of this article and it expresses my own opinions. I am not, nor is my company, receiving compensation for it.