PC gamers want Steam to add filter for ‘garbage’ AI content

Generative AI has been at the center of digital attention for years now, garnering more and more of it as the technology develops and evolves. However, the stigma it carries is equal to, if not greater than, when it first appeared, with gamers particularly opposed to it.

PC players especially look at generative AI as a threat to great, original art that could very well be overwhelmed with a massive influx of AI-made video games, or ones heavily reliant on generative solutions. Valve’s stance on AI is pretty set in stone, as the company requires any and all use of generative models to be explicitly disclosed in every title that gets put up on the Steam store. But many feel that isn’t enough, and players both on the Steam forums and on other social media platforms are begging Valve to introduce a strong filter that lets players flag and exclude games made by or with the help of generative AI.

“I don’t have any interest in playing demos from games that use Generative AI in their development,” said one player in a Feb. 5 Steam community post discussing the upcoming Steam Next Fest that usually lets players try out upcoming titles ahead of time. “It would be good if an option was added to filter these games in the same way players can already filter Adult and NSFW content.”

The post saw overwhelming support from other Steam users, and the discussion leaked to Reddit, where a Feb. 24 thread opened the topic to wider audiences.

One user, who claims they use AI frequently, said that shoehorning the technology into everything is a bad idea, and that they support this move even if they are an avid AI prompter. “I think this should be standard,” they said, adding that “half the time you just get garbage results,” when using the technology, which doesn’t justify its constant presence in everything digital, and especially not in video games.

AI “art” has been hotly debated ever since it entered the zeitgeist, with even the United States government declaring that it won’t approve copyright requests for generated artworks. SAG-AFTRA gaming voice actors and writers held major strikes last year, demanding better safeguards against AI.

Others have praised the idea to add a generative AI filter, as it gives users more agency in how they curate their own storefronts. Not everyone has the same tastes, and Valve already provides several ways to filter out the content that you don’t want to see—yet AI filters remain unavailable. “Giving users more control over their experience is always nice,” said one user.

The sentiment, however, is not universal. Generative AI can be used in smaller amounts, such as to create baseline code or come up with concepts on the fly. Real programmers and artists can use these as inspiration or a starting point, creating very much actual art and code even if it was conceived using AI tools. There is a fine line here, some in the thread argue, and Valve would need to be very careful and specific so as not to filter out games made by actual artists simply because they fired an AI tool up once or twice.

On the other hand, gaming companies like Microsoft are welcoming their AI overlords with open arms, and Valve’s strange machinations are always a mystery, making it unclear if these filters will ever become a reality.