A chief graphic designer at a Japanese game studio has revealed that job applicants now have to prove their artistic ability in-person, as the use of generative AI in art grows.
A new article on Japanese news website Daily Shinko focuses on a tourism association’s decision to cancel a 20-year art contest because it was becoming impossible to tell which entries were genuine human-created artwork and which were generated by AI.
The article goes on to look at the other ways in which generative AI is affecting businesses, and (as spotted by Automaton) cites an unnamed mid-size Japanese video game developer, which has changed its interview process for applicants seeking art roles.
According to a source, simply referred to as Mr B, who serves as the chief graphic designer at the studio, anyone who now applies for an art role now has to create something during the actual interview process, rather than the previous method of submitting a portfolio showing past examples of their work.
“There are many people who claim that artwork generated by AI is their own creation,” Mr B explained (via machine translation). “We’ve actually ended up hiring such people, only to find they weren’t productive, which led to several problems.
“Because of that, we’ve changed our hiring process and it now requires candidates to draw something in person during the interview to verify their skills. As a recruiter, it’s a huge hassle, and it feels like we’re going backwards in time, but I’ve heard that several other companies are doing the same thing.”
The source noted that while this is the current situation, it could change in the future, as upper management continues to ask questions like “do we even need to hire creators when generative AI is good enough”, or “we should be hiring people who are masters at using generative AI”.
Mr B says that while he has been continually pushing against these ideas, he says he can feel his position within the company gradually weakening.
“I also use generative AI as a supplementary tool on the job,” he explained. “But I strongly believe that only human creators can produce compelling characters and graphics from scratch.
“That’s precisely why I’m telling upper management we should hire talented individuals. Yet the company is steering toward promoting generative AI. I’m anxious about how much they truly understand my perspective.”
The topic of generative AI is one that is proving increasingly divisive as its use across the games industry becomes more widespread. Earlier this week former Rockstar writer Dan Houser warned that while generative AI can be useful for some tasks, it won’t be the catch-all solution some claim.
“Some of these people trying to define the future of humanity, creativity, or whatever it is using AI are not the most humane or creative people,” Houser explained on The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on Virgin Radio.
He added: “I think AI is eventually going to eat itself, because as I understand it – which is really superficial understanding – the models scour the internet for information, but the internet’s going to get more and more full of information made by the models, so it’s sort of like when we fed cows with cows and got mad cow disease.”
AloJapan.com