How we cover AI-assisted projects - GBAtemp community check-in

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It’s about that time of year again where I check in with the community to see if we can get the front page aligned with what people are interested in knowing and what people are interested in talking about. As the title might have given away, there’s one topic more hot than most at the moment, and that’s AI.

I am a C++ developer by trade, and my place of employ has just started to roll out Claude licences for those interested, so the topic of AI assisted programming is very much on my mind. I’m not just going to go out there and say “AI bad”. I don’t necessarily think it’s a productive conversation to have. The reality is that we’re going to see more projects that make use of it in some form, and some are likely to warrant attention.

Going forwards, I think it’s important that we highlight when projects we do feature make use of AI, and to what extent if such information is available. My hope is that this will strike a reasonable balance of being able to share projects that might look interesting, and giving people who want to avoid AI related projects a simple indicator.

Obviously not every project is going to be so open with their usage, and we have no intention of starting witch hunts by deep diving code and looking for em dashes in the comments. The aim here is to make whatever public information there is accessible for people reading here, and just make things a touch clearer for the people who are looking for that kind of disclaimer.

With that aside though, I am interested to know what the general consensus is among the user base. Are you open to playing ports assisted by AI if it’s the only port available, or happens to offer something unique? Do you draw the line at vibe coding, or do you avoid any project that has Claude listed as a contributor? We sadly don’t have access to polls on the front page any more, but I will make sure to keep up with any replies as they come in.
 
I think too that AI can do a wonderful job coding emulators, also apps and decomps.
- For example: take Dreamcast emulator source code, and port it to run on PS3.
- Take a decomp of New Super Mario Bros DS, and recompile it to run natively on the PS3
- Optimize dynarec of some emulator, which is a very tedious task...
... hope AI can help devs achieve this
 
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I think too that AI can do a wonderful job coding emulators, also apps and decomps.
- For example: take Dreamcast emulator source code, and port it to run on PS3.
- Take a decomp of New Super Mario Bros DS, and recompile it to run natively on the PS3
- Optimize dynarec of some emulator, which is a very tedious task...
... hope AI can help devs achieve this
thank you for the positive reinforcement on the topic of ai
 
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Also, in my opinion, it's no longer relevant to mention 'AI assistance'. Do you need to mention a document is created with MS office assistance? AI is everywhere.

And sorry for artists, I think soon we will all have to embrace AI
 
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I don't believe vibe coding has any space here or anywhere else. I would prefer not to read anything about whatever AI vibe coding project is being talked about out there. We should not give space to this.

People should stop vibe coding altogether.
no one is going to listen to you. devs will only follow the money. if AI is cheaper then hiring an artist they will use AI. its that simple.
 
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Is artificial intelligence bad? In my opinion, in concept, no. It absolutely could be useful in different ways. In the context of our reality, how it's used, and pushed around, etc.? Yes, it very much is majority of the time. It's rather difficult giving something like this a chance, when you know the carnage that has been brought into the world with it, and the corrupt minds behind majority of the heavy hitters. Artificial intelligence is technically intended to be a resource, but I know how my kind works, we want to cut corners, and in many people's cases, don't want to learn. I have met people with zero coding experience, start up projects using artificial intelligence, but have absolutely no idea how to address issues spawned by the model(s) in use. I've witnessed a lot of people use artificial intelligence more successfully, only to turn right around and take full credit for the labor, which is totally wrong, given the model did most of the work, not the human. They also tend to omit the usage of any form of artificial intelligence, primarily because they know the current backlash when people find out something was used, which to me is also wrong, they are hiding and lying. These models scrape the information provided by real people who actually busted, still busting probably, their rear respectively to learn and provide that knowledge daily. Plagiarizing in a way, because you don't see credit being provided to those supplying the logic. Artificial intelligence is also being used for surveillance, which should be obvious for everyone on the planet at this point (this is its own talking point though for another time).

What nobody is thinking about is yes, right now, the current models require human intervention. There will be a point when that won't be necessary though. One day the models will advance enough to where they sport the fixes we supply currently, so the models don't repeat the same mistakes as often, if at all that they make now. Eventually, a nobody will be labeled as a developer, a musician, an artist, etc. with pseudo experience, because the models are too efficient for their own good, that the art form of coding, making music, art, etc. will slip away from our daily lives. "Why spend all that time and effort doing this, when I can have a model do it for me?" Human beings are already at that mindset, because most people favor convenience above everything else. People don't even want to get up to press a button on their television to turn it on anymore, that's why they invented remotes (also why there are less buttons on the television nowadays). People favor streaming over getting up and putting an optical disc into a tray. People want jobs that pay a lot, but they don't want the hard labor to go with it. People want life made easy. This already extends into artificial intelligence today and much of its uses, and it's only going to get worse as it advances over time. This isn't a far fetched reality, we already live in it. We are just advancing in the wrong directions.

On the same subject matter. As for the points made towards "making jobs easier." On the surface sure, but in actuality, you are wrong. If anything, this will increase the demands in an even shorter time frame. Expectations will increase astronomically as a result. Even if you cut the labor time in half, there's still a time crunch to perform other tasks, in a rather extensive list of things to do, and growing. There still won't be enough proper focus for each task. The end result is just a larger quantity of low quality solutions in a shorter time frame.

On a personal note. I bust my butt constantly to learn and expand myself almost daily. I avoid artificial intelligence not out of spite, or because I'm too good for it. I value my progressively growing capabilities. The hard, grueling, labor, is part of the job description, even within the plethora of hobbies I have. You can't truly enjoy and appreciate something for what it is, without accepting and appreciating both the ups and the downs. You can't sit and celebrate only the pros, and avoid the cons. You also can't appreciate the pros as much as you could, by completely ignoring and or avoiding the cons. In my opinion, If you aren't willing to compromise and take on the hardships, the challenges, etc. along the way, then you need to stay away from the craft, it's not for you, it never was. It's difficult when you have no idea how anything works, that's certain, but self induced arbitrary difficulty spawns from the lack of willingness to pursue and excel with yourself. The world shouldn't be made anymore "easier," "convenient," or in general catered to you, just because you make yourself mentally inadequate.
 
Last edited by DeadSkullzJr,
no one is going to listen to you. devs will only follow the money. if AI is cheaper then hiring an artist they will use AI. its that simple.
Cool, let anyone make anything they want to in any way they want. I will never buy AI projects or any game that disclosure AI usage. We just don't need to talk about it here. Please mods, let this be a free AI slop place.
 
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Cool, let anyone make anything they want to in any way they want. I will never buy AI projects or any game that disclosure AI usage. We just don't need to talk about it here. Please mods, let this be a free AI slop place.
you buy AI stuff all the time. All games going forward will use AI in some way and it will only get better until you can't recognize it. unless you decide maybe quit being a gamer. otherwise AI will be in everything.
 
I really don't.


Speak for yourself, we really can. And it's awful.
I am not speaking for myself I am reminding you why being anti AI is dumb and a waste telling yourself that you don't doesn't mean you don't. your games you buy some of them are using really good AI in it without disclosing it. and that is going to be the future. tell yourself this in a spiritual chant all you want it won't make it fact. you buy AI games because you don't know they are being made by AI. thats just the way it is.
 

Not that a person has to intentionally promote or condone AI. But we should be realistic about who *is* using it.
Even software as omnipresent on the World Wide Web as Linux is, do not categorically prohibit AI.

If you're browsing a website that runs Linux on their server, the site may be using a distro that contains AI generated code.
 
I don't believe vibe coding has any space here or anywhere else. I would prefer not to read anything about whatever AI vibe coding project is being talked about out there. We should not give space to this.

People should stop vibe coding altogether.

Lol.

If you really believe that's gonna happen anytime soon, you're in for a rude awakening.

I do agree that the term 'vibe coding' is stupid and needs to die.

However, AI-assisted coding is NEVER going away. The cat is out of the bag, and I can assure you there are basically zero developers who aren't using it in one way or another (whether they admit it or not).

The best you can do is just accept it. Even Linus Torvalds admitted to using AI tools for personal projects.
 
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I avoid AI-generated projects whenever possible. Responsibly AI-assisted projects too, but to a lesser extent.

Basically, unless it opens the possibility of something new and unique, I don't feel it's worth my time or experimenting. So, AI-generated game ports are a no, but things like the "NSO GameCube Controller Pairing App" I do opt to use as there's no alternative on Linux I could find, and determined that it should be okay to use.
 
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Little sidenote, and maybe it's already been mentioned (I don't have energy to check 5 pages of posts, though I hope what I say is helpful):

AI is a marketing term. What I suppose people are talking about here is LLMs, or also call it Generative AI.

Pong has AI, but you can't tell me it's the same as the one generating realistic videos of your favorite celebrity doing whatever twisted people's minds can imagine.

With that being said, I don't think this necessarily needs to be a place where anything GenAI is completely banned. It's too late to stop the ball from rolling. What could be done is a proper notice, maybe a tag, a clear and straightforward mention in the title. Then people can choose what to do with that information.

Of course, the so-called slop exists too. And I suspect this website doesn't wants to publicize anything low quality on the main page, regardless of its usage of GenAI.

Maybe the question is if you really need to report on every single piece of news that happens asap, when not even enough time has passed in order to have a decent idea of what's going on. It isn't like GBAtemp is competing with AP or Reuters, Wall Street Journal or The Sun, there can be some kind of wait before deciding on what to report.

TLDR: make it clear on the title, with a tag or something that the project you're covering uses GenAI. And maybe wait some time before covering it, there's no hurries neither clear competition with the website.
 
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Including what a project already discloses on AI usage seems appropriate. You’re just including context that the person who created the project already provided.

Not trying to make a judgement on using LLMs in coding or other places. The amount of software being written that doesn’t use LLMs in at least some way is approaching 0 though.
 
I avoid AI-generated projects whenever possible. Responsibly AI-assisted projects too, but to a lesser extent.

Basically, unless it opens the possibility of something new and unique, I don't feel it's worth my time or experimenting. So, AI-generated game ports are a no, but things like the "NSO GameCube Controller Pairing App" I do opt to use as there's no alternative on Linux I could find, and determined that it should be okay to use.

So, basically you accept AI when it's convenient for you while trying to maintain the 'anti-AI' façade. Got it.


You guys got it all wrong. This whole 'hate AI by default' thing misses the mark entirely.

The actual hate should be directed at low-effort stuff, regardless of whether it uses AI assistance or not. There is plenty of human-made garbage that gets pushed out just as fast every single day, and has been since the dawn of the internet.
 
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As someone who is personally against the use of AI especially in creative works, I think the most important part here is disclosure. Any project that explicitly states whether it uses AI or not should have that mentioned in the article; and I think there should be a way of disclosing when a project is reasonably suspected of using AI with solid evidence (I don’t think it’s fair to throw accusations around in that regard).

I also think that there should be distinctions between whether some or a majority of the code is AI generated and whether or not game assets / art / music are generated.

I appreciate having this open forum for everyone to voice their opinions on the subject; I think it’s very important for all sides to be taken into consideration with how projects are reported on going forward.
 
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It's a good thing if AI can code. More coders are always needed, yet the job market is way too competitive to get your foot in the door. I tried coding twice in my lifetime and never got anywhere with it. I'd rather someone else make programs for me which basically is what they do. Games, apps, and all. Also if it was easy to get AI to make programs that would be even more cool. Then you could just tell it what you want to make and it'll do it. I dunno how it all works though.

Right now, FPGA cores for old arcade machines are being replicated using AI. I've played some of it.
 
This whole 'hate AI by default' thing misses the mark entirely.
Except it's not "by default". Don't pretend that there aren't dozens of reasons to condemn AI use. Also the whole "AI is inevitable" is pure marketing by big corporations. It is entirely possible to not use LLMs/GenAI and there will always be people that don't use it. Please don't be like "omg this is the future, you guys must accept!!". It's not like that at all.
 
I think it would be good practice to report if AI is used, to which extent, how is the code tested and reviewed to achieve quality specially in case AI is used, what are the efforts or into ensure quality and safety, etc.

Anyway, I just wanted to recommend the book "The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI", it is fun.
 

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