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Steam's New Regulations Allow Games Developed with AI

Valve Corporation announced on Wednesday that game developers will now need to fill out an "AI (artificial intelligence) disclosure section" in their content survey while submitting games to Steam. The company will use the disclosure in its evaluation of the game and, if the game is approved, display information about the game's use of AI on its Steam store page.

Valve Corporation's blog post addressed the "legally murky space" of AI technology and stated that it is making changes to how it "handles" games that utilize it. The new regulations encourage transparency regarding the use of AI and will enable developers to submit games that use assets that they don't necessarily own.

According to The Verge, Valve Corporation had previously rejected several submissions to the Steam store, stating a reliance on "material owned by third parties." Valve spokesperson Kaci Boyle later clarified that the company was not looking to discourage the use of AI and was working on integrating it into the company's existing policies.

The new regulations specify AI usage in games into two categories:

• Pre-Generated: Any kind of content (art/code/sound/etc) created with the help of AI tools during development. Under the Steam Distribution Agreement, you promise Valve that your game will not include illegal or infringing content, and that your game will be consistent with your marketing materials. In our pre-release review, we will evaluate the output of AI generated content in your game the same way we evaluate all non-AI content - including a check that your game meets those promises.

• Live-Generated: Any kind of content created with the help of AI tools while the game is running. In addition to following the same rules as Pre-Generated AI content, this comes with an additional requirement: in the Content Survey, you'll need to tell us what kind of guardrails you're putting on your AI to ensure it's not generating illegal content.

Valve is also releasing a new system on Steam that allows players to report "illegal content inside games that contain Live-Generated AI content."

Sources: Steam, The Verge (Jon Porter) via Slash Dot