Alters Developer Confirms Generative AI Text Use, Vows Updates

Developer 11 Bit Studios has addressed player concerns alleging the use of generative AI for in-game text and translations in The Alters. The studio has committed to releasing an update that will replace this AI-generated content with manually crafted assets.

Last week, players of The Alters noticed text that appeared to be AI-generated on a screen within the game's Command Center. The text included the line, "Sure, here's a revised version focusing purely on scientific and astronomical data:" preceding a Captain's log entry. This phrasing strongly suggests an AI was prompted for the text and its introductory response was accidentally left in the final game.

Did The Alters (captain) use a little bit of AI?
byu/EarthlingKira inTheAlters

In the English version, the issue ended there. However, players using other language versions pointed out that some translations contained lines like "Sure! Here is the translated text into Brazilian Portuguese." This indicates 11 Bit Studios utilized generative AI to localize at least some parts of the game. Notably, The Alters' Steam page does not include the disclosure mandated by Valve for games employing generative AI technology.

In a statement provided to IGN and shared on social media, 11 Bit Studios offered an explanation. The studio clarified that the Captain's Log text was a graphical placeholder that was inadvertently included in the release and assured no other similar instances exist. Regarding localization, the studio stated generative AI was used only for last-minute translations of a few cutscenes added very late in development, with plans already in place to replace them with professional translations.

The studio's full statement is as follows:

We’ve seen a wide range of accusations regarding the use of AI-generated content in The Alters, and we feel it’s important to clarify our approach and give you more context. AI-generated assets were used strictly as temporary WIPs during the development process and in a very limited manner. Our team has always prioritized meaningful, handcrafted storytelling as one of the foundations of our game.

During production, an AI-generated text for a graphic asset, which was meant as a piece of background texture, was used by one of our graphical designers as a placeholder. This was never intended to be part of the final release. Unfortunately, due to an internal oversight, this single placeholder text was mistakenly left in the game. We have since conducted a thorough review and confirmed that this was an isolated case, and the asset in question is being updated.

For transparency, we’ve included a screenshot to show how and where it appears in the game. While we do not want to downplay the situation, we also want to clearly show its limited impact on your gaming experience.

In addition to that, a few licensed movies that the alters can watch in the social area of the base were added at the final stage of development. While those were externally produced, our team was not involved in the creative process, and these required additional last-minute translations. Due to extreme time constraints, we chose not to involve our translation partners and had these videos localized using AI to have them ready on launch. It was always our intention to involve our trusted translation agencies after release as part of our localization hotfix, to ensure those texts would be handled with the same care and quality as the rest of the game. That process is now underway, and updated translations are being implemented.

To give you a better understanding of what a small part of the overall scope of the game’s narrative layer they are, those few external movies are approximately 10k words out of 3.4 million across all languages in the game, or just 0.3% of the overall text. The alternative was to release those specific dialogues in English only, which we believed would be a worse experience for non-English speakers. In hindsight, we acknowledge this was the wrong call. Even more so, no matter what we decided, we should have simply let you know.

As AI tools evolve, they present new challenges and opportunities in game development. We’re actively adapting our internal processes to meet this reality. But above all, we remain committed to transparency in how we make our games. We appreciate your understanding and continued support as we work towards that goal.

11 Bit Studios joins a growing list of companies facing scrutiny for generative AI use. Last week, Frontier Developments, developer of Jurassic World Evolution 3, retracted its use of AI-generated character portraits following criticism. Activision has also faced backlash for its AI use, including an advertisement for a non-existent Guitar Hero game and certain assets in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Other titles like Palworld have been accused of using AI but have vigorously defended their development process.

In our review, we awarded The Alters an 8/10, describing it as "a highly atmospheric sci-fi character study mixed with simple but effective resource and base management that cleverly builds existential and interpersonal pressure throughout its story."