Steam No Longer Allowing Games with AI-Generated Assets, According to Report

Valve, the company that owns the widely used gaming client and online store Steam, seems to be facing legal challenges related to the use of generative AI in the gaming sector. It has been reported that the company is allegedly prohibiting the sale of games on its platform that incorporate AI-generated artwork.

An anonymous developer recently shared their experience of having their game rejected for Steam. The developer’s post received significant attention on Twitter, where they revealed that a significant portion of the game’s assets were generated through AI, specifically using Stable Diffusion, Byte reported.

However, this turned out to be a critical mistake. Valve’s Moderator responded by explaining that the game could not be listed on Steam because it contained AI-generated artwork that appeared to depend on copyrighted material owned by third parties.

“Because the legal ownership of such AI-generated art is unclear, we cannot distribute your game if it contains these AI-generated assets unless you can unequivocally prove that you own the rights to all intellectual property used to train the AI responsible for creating the assets in your game,” Moderator stated.

In an attempt to solve the problem, the game’s developer claimed to have “enhanced” the property to remove any obvious signs of AI involvement. However, the game was rejected even after resubmitting.

It remains to be seen whether the moderator’s response reflects official Valve policy, as the company has yet to clarify its position publicly, following its usual reserved approach.

This careful language seems to allow the hiring of an in-house AI like Blizzard, trained solely with company-owned funds.

It looks like Valve is staying on the sidelines, possibly for precautionary reasons. Ultimately, the legal implications of generative AI returns are highly contentious.

Companies behind AI image generators have been sued by artists for training in copyrighted art without permission or compensation. Getty Images has also filed a similar lawsuit.

The outcome of these pending lawsuits could significantly affect the future of AI-generated imagery, and Valve may simply want to avoid getting involved in copyright infringement by distributing games that contain potentially stolen assets.