Different matters that Kiryu addresses within the letter embody Sq. Enix’s future funding methods, comedian publishing plans, present growth pipeline, and ideas about how Sq. Enix can broaden its online game publishing efforts. Nonetheless, Kiryu’s ideas on AI expertise have understandably dominated the dialog concerning the letter resulting from each their controversial nature and the methods they mimic the tone of the remainder of Kiryu’s methods and statements.
Earlier than we dive into all of that, although, there are a few items of context price maintaining in thoughts. First off, this letter definitely reads prefer it’s largely meant for the corporate’s varied buyers. Many firms publish letters to their buyers this time of 12 months, and people letters are typically fairly…dry and targeted on issues that usually solely excite that particular crowd. Moreover, this is among the first vital public statements that Kiryu has launched since changing into Sq. Enix President in March 2023. His relative inexperience in that particular place makes these statements extra attention-grabbing and will definitely affect his views on these matters in varied methods.
Having stated that, there are a number of issues about Kiryu’s letter that may undoubtedly be regarding at greatest and horrifying at worst for a lot of Sq. Enix followers in addition to those that use the actions of such a serious firm as a compass for the course the remainder of the online game business could also be heading in.
For me, the saddest a part of the letter is the part the place Kiryu mentions Sq. Enix’s ongoing curiosity in “blockchain leisure/Net 3.0, AI, and the cloud.” Nicely, Kiryu’s predecessor (Yosuke Matsuda) beforehand argued that blockchain expertise was going to be a giant a part of Sq. Enix’s future and the way forward for gaming, a lot to his eventual detriment. But, not solely does Kiryu counsel that Sq. Enix must “optimize our useful resource allocations” to help a few of these investments that stay socially controversial and fiscally unstable, however he does so in the identical letter the place he bullishly embraces the equally controversial use of generative AI expertise as a serious a part of the corporate’s future.
Thoughts you, the letter consists of little point out of how that expertise will virtually be applied to help Sq. Enix’s builders, which is each a vital piece of lacking data and arguably your entire downside. In a letter seemingly meant to open the minds and wallets of buyers all over the place, a imprecise point out of the imprecise advantages of vaguely outlined AI expertise is seen as one thing price getting very enthusiastic about within the minds of individuals whose cash and choices will find yourself impacting the video games we play and the lives of the individuals who make them.
Coming off of a 12 months that noticed widespread layoffs throughout the online game business, it feels particularly ignorant to counsel that the way forward for your cornerstone online game firm might be primarily based on expertise that many concern won’t solely negatively affect job availability/high quality throughout the business however to take action in a letter that frustratingly brushes apart beforehand misplaced optimism in failed items of stylish unstable expertise. Like different public proponents of generative AI, Kiryu suggests its preliminary implication might be used to “improve our growth productiveness,” however that reference to utilizing that expertise to “create new types of content material for customers” is a haunting reminder that the present success of even seemingly affordable fashionable AI purposes fuels the specter of AI-generated content material on an enormous scale.
