The video game industry is still trying to digest the sudden defection of Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond from Xbox. Microsoft has since appointed former Microsoft CoreAI president, Asha Sharma in Spencer's place, with Matt Booty promoted to Xbox's Chief Content Officer.
While fans were worried about what Sharma's appointment would mean for Xbox, especially given her AI background, she promised that the ecosystem would not be flooded with “soulless AI slop.” That might be a little hard to believe, though, given how Microsoft's top management has recently made sweeping decisions to bolster its AI push. Asha and Booty have now reiterated that Microsoft is not pushing them to implement AI in Xbox's strategy.
Microsoft is not pushing for AI implementation on Xbox
In an interview with Windows Central, Sharma and Booty emphasized that Microsoft has put no pressure on them to implement any AI strategy in Xbox, despite Sharma's previous role. “I think with any new technology, it brings opportunities as a tool, but more importantly, especially now — we have to draw lines of what we're not going to do,” Sharma said. “That's what I was trying to do when I shared my opening letter. I'm not going to flood our ecosystem with slush.”
Booty assured that Microsoft will not force developers to use AI tools, but added that they are free to experiment with whatever tools they want. “What I'm hearing in our studios: it's the people, our artists, our coders, the writers — they're doing the creative work,” he said. “In my experience, every time there's a new technology, what happens is there's a need for more specialists, new specialists. It raises the bar for what the expectations are for the quality of the games.
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“We have no pressure from Microsoft, there are no directives about AI coming down. Our teams are free to use any technology that might be beneficial, whether it's helping to write code or looking for bugs — things that are more in the production pipeline. At the end of the day, as Asha said, we're engaged in human-made art. The technology is just in support of that.”
