When executives take a look at all the human work they think can be replaced by AI, it seems narrative efforts are near the top of that list. Even though gamers have proven that a good story can be worth as much as great gameplay, as we step into an unclear, AI-ridden future, some writers may be looking to embrace the tech.
Jennifer Svedberg-Yen, the lead writer of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, is not one of those writers. Speaking with GamesRadar+ at GDC, she said that while she's interested in the technical side of AI, it cannot help her create better stories.
"From a writing perspective, it is not really something that I find useful in my personal work. It's not something that is part of my workflow," she explained. "Writing is part of the joy, it's also part of the pain. They say that there's two types of writers: those who write and they're inspired and fired up, and they enjoy it. And then there are writers who write through the pain. I think I write through the pain."
That pain is something that Svedberg-Yen knows is "vital" to the writing process. "To actually work through what the characters are feeling, work through what they would say, think through how the emotions feel within myself, and then understanding the characters and who they are, like translating that into their words, and finding the truth in that moment. I don't know how to do that with AI."
"The whole point of writing is to express what I have in my head. Right? It's meant to express our, as writers, our point of view, our understanding of the world, and relay something about our personal, lived experience channelled through these characters in this fantastical scenario," she continued. "I feel that you risk losing some of that when it's put through essentially a black box where you can't necessarily understand all the ways that AI gets from A to Z."
AI simplifies the storytelling process to the point it lacks humanity, weight, and emotion, basically. It's a valid argument, but one that might not be understood by those who've not shared the pain of bringing characters to life from scratch.
If you want to hear more about the writing process behind Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, check out our interview with Jennifer Svedberg-Yen here.