Todd Howard says Bethesda is being "incredibly cautious" around AI, but sounds keen to use it for "big data tasks"

There are a handful of studios out there that, if they revealed they were using generative AI in their games, I’d be particularly heartbroken about. Bethesda is absolutely one of them – hand-crafted, detailed worlds and quests full of memorable moments and flair are the core pillars that helped it make some of the best RPGs of all time. Even the procedural generation used in many of Starfield’s vast planets muddied the waters a bit, so injecting AI-generated content into its games could be even more damaging and disappointing. Todd Howard has previously gone on record to say that AI is not generating anything inside the studio, and in a new interview with Kinda Funny, he reaffirms that. However, he appears open to adopting AI tools that can help Bethesda tackle “big data tasks” so that developers can “move on to the creative stuff.”

We’re now seven and a half years on from when Bethesda announced The Elder Scrolls 6 – Howard has on numerous occasions mentioned how he regrets having to announce it so early, and it seems like we won’t see the TES 6 release date for a while yet. While it’s been hammering Fallout 76 with content to good effect, there have also been criticisms that an all-new Fallout game is nowhere to be seen, despite the current hype around the franchise generated by the Amazon TV series. AI tools could be invaluable in getting these long-awaited games out quicker, but in an era of incredibly valid skepticism around its usage in game development, it could also be a disastrous move in terms of both reputation and quality.

“For us, we’re being incredibly cautious,” Howard tells Kinda Funny host Greg Miller. “[We’re] kind of viewing [AI] as a tool, like an analyst, to look at the data in our games. We’re not using it to generate anything. I think there’s an element of artistic intention that is essential to what we do and what others do. And if you look across things outside of AI, like this idea of craftsmen – craftsmen and that hand-crafted, human intention is what makes things special. And that’s where we want to be.

“But you can’t ignore it, in terms of it’s coming, it’s changing, every few months there’s a new model, particularly in the tech side with code or productivity or other things. I would just say we’re looking at that stuff, we’re not fully ignoring it, because where it can help us get better at some big data tasks that just take us a lot of time, that we just wish were done now, so we can move on to the creative stuff, that’s kinda where our heads are.”

Howard says Bethesda’s procedural systems and its “long-term player analysis” are two examples where it has mountains of data to look at, and says that AI “has a lot of use today” but also acknowledges that it’s “changing really rapidly, and we’ll see where it goes.”

Away from AI, Howard also has a few interesting thoughts on leaks, remakes, and remasters – pertinent topics given Oblivion Remastered’s success last year, and the rumors swirling that Fallout 3 and/or Fallout New Vegas remasters are in the works.

“I would say I’ve softened on the whole remaster thing,” Howard says, which is unsurprising given both how well Oblivion Remastered performed and how faithful it was to the original. “There was a lot of conversation about ‘hey, should we remaster some of our games?’ You look at your catalog, you say ‘what’s the right thing to do?’ We felt Oblivion was the right one. I am very still – this is only for stuff we’ve made here that I’ve made – I’m sort of anti-remake. I respect the other ones out there, but I really think part of the age of a game is part of who and what it is, its personality, and what it represented when it came out.”

Throughout the interview, Howard dodges any talk of Fallout remasters, simply reaffirming that Bethesda has “multiple” Fallout projects in the works. However, he does remind Miller of one thing: “I do like shadow drops. I will say that. That is my preferred method.”

He says that leaks (something Oblivion Remastered suffered from in the build up to launch) can “take away” from the exciting moment a shadow drop or surprise announcement brings.

“We’ve been through so many leaks, [and] in the moment you’re always pissed off,” Howard concedes. However, he also says that they don’t ultimately damage a game’s chances, whether that be for Bethesda or any other studio. “This is true for other people, I point it out all the time, I don’t think a leak has ever affected the success of a game, and there have been some really bad ones. But at the end of the day, I can’t think of any that have really affected the success of a game when it came out.”