It’s gotten to the point where I don’t feel comfortable not being totally honest about where I stand on AI, so here goes.

Get ready for an extremely measured and calm take.

I’m not all-in on AI nor am I vehemently against it, so if you expected an extreme position, prepare to be disappointed.

First and foremost to establish my credentials, I’m an Information Technologist by trade. I manage, build, and secure computer networks and software systems for a living and have for the last decade.

AI is different.

AI is the first technology that can convincingly mimic human communication and creative output at scale and that’s both fascinating and terrifying. But the biggest issue I see with AI isn’t the technology itself; it’s how it was presented to us, how we talk about it, and who it benefits.

AI was presented to us, first and foremost, as something it is not: a panacea for every problem in the world. It was presented as a cure-all for everything by already wealthy people with a vested interest in making a Frankly Incomprehensible Amount of Money (or “FIAM” as I like to say) off of it.

The branding didn’t help.

AI isn’t the kind of AI we’ve been taught to expect from pop culture. What we call Generative AI is basically predictive text on steroids, not sentience. It’s a model that guesses the word that logically comes next in a sentence called a Large Language Model or LLM.

But that’s not sexy, so they called it “AI” which *immediately* makes people think of either Side A (Terminator, GLaDOS, HAL 9000) or Side B (Optimus Prime, Astro Bot, and maybe Bender).

That is not what we have right now.

You can make a printer spit out a page that says “I’m conscious”, too. That doesn’t mean your Brother WorkSmart is secretly plotting against you (but I don’t trust a Canon Pixma 410MX as far as I can throw it).

Second, AI was rolled out for public use with insufficient testing, public education, or studies on its effects (but what else is new in terms of Silicon Valley rollouts?). Nobody in charge invested nearly enough effort into understanding it since the shareholders demanded and they wanted the FIAM.

And what happens when one company introduces a new technology to chase the FIAM? Corporate FOMO. So everyone else went all-in on it without fully understanding what it was, how it worked, or what the impact would be because Capitalism

(Oh, big surprise: the autistic trans femme is anti-capitalist).

Meanwhile, the average person does what people do with any new thing: they try it for themselves, read articles about it, or listen to a trusted source’s opinion on it.

Then our polarized social media and news environments polarize the issue even further and you get people decrying it as pure evil or the savior of mankind.

As usual, the reality is somewhere in-between.

But measured, composed responses don’t get clicks or generate ad revenue, so they get ignored in favor of outrage culture one way or the other.

Social media platforms profit from engagement, and outrage makes *big money*.

Meanwhile, AI isn’t going away.

So what can we do about it? Is there any ethical use of AI or is it just tainted by misuse?

Well, let me answer that with this. When the Internet first became a thing, lots of organizations used it to help others. But you know who else had a website? The KKK. Does that make the Internet a mistake?

I don’t think anyone would earnestly make that argument and if they would, I’d be more intrigued to hear it than inclined to dismiss it outright.

Some AI models were trained entirely on public or opt-in data sources. A large number of models can be run locally with minimal power requirements. Today’s AI builds on ideas people already interact with every day, like predictive text.

All of this is to say that yes, there is ethical use of AI, but for a lot of people, the more privacy-conscious or ethically sourced options are either too expensive or too technical without a decade or more of professional IT experience.

That is a problem of accessibility, not morality.

I hate to say it, but if you outright refuse to use AI, you might get left behind in the same way as someone who still writes a letter to an airline for tickets. This genie is not going back in the bottle, no matter how much some may want it to.

I understand the hesitation.

The problem is not the technology itself; the problem is (as is often the case) how people use it.

And people are currently allowed to use it to do some pretty shitty things. People who own it are allowed to expand it by doing some extremely shitty things.

I’m not going to tell you where to draw the line on what is and isn’t ethical use of AI. That’s not my place to do. Only you can decide that for yourself.

But I implore everyone to take a measured approach to that decision as the extremes are rarely the right response to something.

AI generated art, for example, is a non-starter for me. AI generated reference images however, are not.

AI generated scripts are not something I’m interested in. But if you had an AI in a meeting to take notes, fine.

And AI generated code is fine to me as long as a person is double-checking it.

And I’ll give you one more way in which AI actually helps me, personally:

I’m colorblind.

I’ve had trouble drawing my entire life. But when I can tell an LLM “hey, I’m drawing an autumnal scene, what color should I use for this tree”? and it responds with hex codes, that’s life changing for me.

I’m also autistic. My brain never shuts up. So being able to have a way to get everything in my head out of my head and then have it summarized back to me in a paragraph instead of a series of novellas has been amazing.

I can’t reasonably count on a friend or my therapist to be around at 3 AM.

It’s also helped me to deal with problems with overthinking, catastrophizing, all-or-nothing thinking, cognitive distortions, and trauma in addition to working with a licensed therapist.

My AI keeps track of this so that I don’t go into therapy having forgotten I had a meltdown two days prior.

As an adaptive or assistive technology, it’s been a huge boon for me.

BUT.

I also am aware of the risks. I’m aware of the environmental impact. I’m aware of the harm it’s contributed to and I’m aware of the phenomenon and dangers of AI psychosis. All of those things are a problem and all of those things need to be addressed.

That said, there’s a huge difference between using AI to assist your creative projects and mental health and offloading your entire identity and prefrontal cortex to a machine.

Believe it or not, there is a middle ground where you use it in moderation while staying aware of the risks and benefits.

But like how we teach Internet safety now, we need to teach AI safety, too. Not 30 years after it becomes commonplace: NOW.

We need to regulate the industry and hold the people responsible for it responsible.

“A computer can never be held accountable, therefore a computer must never make a management decision” -IBM Training Manual, 1979

We need to establish who, legally, takes responsibility for the behavior of an AI. We need to educate the general public on what is and isn’t safe AI usage. We need to regulate companies developing AI and what’s legal and illegal use.

These are conversations we need to have as a society.

Until that happens, we’re down to policing and educating ourselves and I implore *everyone* who has read this far to do so.

Everything above explains why I’ve arrived at these conclusions. Everything below explains how those beliefs translate into Wayward Thoughts Interactive’s actual development policies.

That said? This is an ongoing conversation, not a decree.

I hope we can have a measured and frank discussion on this emerging technology as a creator and as a person between my community of fans, peers, and colleagues.

I’m willing to hear you out if you’re willing to do the same.

Peace, love, and video games. ☮️ ❤️ 🎮
-Riley Uslan

Wayward Thoughts Interactive believes that players, publishers, collaborators, and fellow developers deserve an honest understanding of how our games are made.

This page explains how artificial intelligence is used during development and where human authorship begins and ends. It is intended to provide transparency regarding our development process and will be updated as our workflow evolves.

Artificial intelligence is used at Wayward Thoughts Interactive as an assistive development tool.

Its purpose is to improve development efficiency, organization, accessibility, and iteration; NOT to replace human creativity or creative responsibility.

Every released game remains the responsibility of Wayward Thoughts Interactive. Final creative decisions are always made by the developer.

Current uses include:

• Brainstorming and creative discussion
• Idea organization and recording
• Design iteration and systems analysis
• Coding assistance and debugging
• Summarization of long development discussions
• Research assistance
• Accessibility support, including assistance evaluating color palettes and contrast due to the developer’s colorblindness

AI serves as a collaborative sounding board that helps organize information, explore alternatives, identify inconsistencies, and accelerate iteration throughout development.

Wayward Thoughts Interactive retains creative responsibility for every project.

This includes, but is not limited to:

• Creative direction
• Game design
• Programming and implementation
• Narrative design and writing
• Character design
• Worldbuilding
• Gameplay mechanics
• User interface design
• Animation
• Art direction
• Audio direction
• Marketing
• Final editorial review

Every feature, design decision, gameplay system, line of dialogue, and production asset included in a released Wayward Thoughts Interactive title is subject to human review before publication.

Maintaining a consistent artistic identity is a core part of every Wayward Thoughts Interactive project.

During early development, rough visual references may occasionally be explored as part of the ideation process. These references are never considered finished production assets.

Artwork appearing in released games is Artwork appearing in released games is created, refined, and reviewed by the developer to ensure it matches each project’s established visual language and artistic direction.

Artificial intelligence also serves as an accessibility tool during development.

As the developer is colorblind, AI is used to help evaluate color palettes, distinguish visually similar colors, verify contrast, and identify visual issues that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Independent game development requires balancing programming, writing, illustration, animation, design, production, marketing, and business management.

AI helps reduce time spent organizing information, summarizing discussions, debugging code, and exploring ideas so that more development time can be dedicated to building and polishing the game itself.

Its role is to assist the creative process, not replace it.

Wayward Thoughts Interactive is committed to:

• Being transparent about our development workflow.
• Clearly communicating meaningful changes to that workflow.
• Maintaining human creative direction and editorial control.
• Taking responsibility for every game we release.

Whether a tool is traditional or modern, the final responsibility for every released project rests with Wayward Thoughts Interactive.