Clair Obscur won multiple awards but used generative AI art as placeholders during production.

The Indie Game Awards revoked Clair Obscur’s Debut and Game of the Year after the AI disclosure.

IGAs reassigned the awards (Blue Prince, Sorry We’re Closed) and reignited debate on gen-AI use.

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[–] 44 points 8 months ago* (42 children)

One of the rules was no AI during development, they voluntarily claimed they didn't use it.

They used it. Sure, in a minor way, but they used it and got caught.

The rules are the rules. Some chess events ban caffeine, we might laugh and say drinking a cup of coffee is not a big deal - but they'd be disqualified.

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  • [+] -9 points 8 months ago (21 children)

    But this is like banning someone from a chess event because they experimented with caffeine 3 years ago and accidentally left a single Nespresso pod in their bag. That they also immediately threw in the trash when they noticed

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  • [–] 20 points 8 months ago (11 children)

    Or like they submitted a game to an award that said no AI in development, said they didn't use AI in development, when in reality they did.

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  • [+] -7 points 8 months ago (10 children)

    Because they thought they didn’t and found out 3 year old in-house AI test assets ended up in the release version. And promptly replaced them with the actual art done by their own actual artists, the ones who did the AI experiment.

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  • [–] 9 points 8 months ago (9 children)

    That's fine, but they did use AI in development, so whether or not they removed the assets they should not be included in this award category.

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  • [+] -6 points 8 months ago (8 children)

    You do acknowledge that “using AI during development” is a massive thing to ban games for.

    How can they check for that in the future?

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  • [–] 6 points 8 months ago* (6 children)

    it’s irrelevant whether you agree with the rule or not… the award is for games that didn’t use AI during development. the game should not have originally been in contention for the award

    i tend to agree this is the right way to use AI assets, but this isn’t the award for them… it doesn’t matter if it was accidental, if it was removed before release, or anything else

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  • [–] -4 points 8 months ago (5 children)

    Yes it’s their rule. It’s a stupid rule.

    But how do they intend to police said rule in the future? Since it clearly isn’t just for released art assets but THE WHOLE PROCESS.

    If it’s just self reported what’s the point?

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  • [–] 7 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    that’s all irrelevant though… the rule is the rule and they got caught

    people should be allowed to have awards for games which only use humans, and if a game is caught cheating they should be disqualified

    if they want to compete for some awards, these aren’t the awards for them: there are others

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  • [–] -2 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    Yes yes. They used AI, they lost the award. I’m over it. Next topic:

    How do they (indie awards) enforce this in the future? Please read, understand and explain:

    The rules say no AI can be used in ANY stage of the development for ANYTHING. How do they check it? Where do they draw the line? Is it just art assets? Voices? Code?

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    You know, any studio today that cares about winning the indie award as much as you seem to would probably just ask the award coordinators for clarification.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (1 child)

    TBH this is the first time I heard about these awards 😅

    My flavour of neurospicy just doesn’t understand vague rules with massive issues with how to interpret them.

    So you’re perfectly fine with vague rules like that?

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  • That would make a lot of sense.

    Scientific fields obviously put a lot of effort into tackling this problem, but philosophically, it is not possible to be specific enough to do away with vagueness. At some point, you have to use language like "a reasonable person" and just leave judges to interpret the spirit of what's being restricted.

    So you’re perfectly fine with vague rules like that?

    Yes. I don't even feel it's that vague.

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  • [–] 6 points 8 months ago (6 children)

    Is there a rule that chess players can't train with caffeine?

    Of course not. It's not at all the same.

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  • [–] 0 points 8 months ago (5 children)

    The indie game awards rule is equivalent to my example.

    No AI can be used anywhere in the production in any capacity ever.

    It’s not just “the released game can’t contain AI generated content”

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago* (1 child)

    I don't understand your argument at all. Your first comment seems to disagree with the ban, but this one explicitly agrees with it.

    Your example is weird because it doesn't exist. There is no restrictions on how chess players train, only how they compete. All you're doing is building a strawman, not an analogy.

    And to be clear, they didn't get banned for using AI. They got banned for lying about using AI. You can agree or disagree with the rule itself, but it's not debatable whether it was in place when they entered the contest or whether the studio lied about it.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    If we're following the chess analogy the developers are allowed to use AI to train their skill but not to aide in the actual competition.

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  • [+] -17 points 8 months ago* (19 children)

    The rules are the rules

    This has the same validity as an argument as "I was just following orders" or "I am just doing my job" or "I told you I would hit you in five seconds, so you did know" same reasoning behind teachers that throw students out for being 5 minutes late

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  • [–] 12 points 8 months ago* (5 children)

    This has the same validity as an argument as "I was just following orders"

    Ok, reality check: we are talking about video game awards. Calm down.

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  • [+] -8 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    That doesn't change the claim. Following the rules for the sake of following the rules instead of understanding why they are there is a defining trait of this sheep behavior.

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  • [–] 11 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    My guy, the whole "I'm just following orders" is about people harming others because they were ordered to do so, it's not about acting as a group in general ffs.

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  • [–] -3 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Yeah that's the worst case scenario. But the behavior is bad in general

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    You won today's most contrarian person award. The prize is food served by someone who hasn't washed their hands because they want you to have a strong immune system. To claim your reward please cross the nearest freeway on foot.

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  • [–] 11 points 8 months ago (8 children)

    If you don't enforce rules then you don't have rules. You should have learned that dealing with all those teachers who threw you out for being late in school.

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  • [+] -8 points 8 months ago (7 children)

    There's nothing to learn from teachers with fragile ego

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  • [–] 6 points 8 months ago (5 children)

    Sounds like an excuse for bad behavior to me.

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  • [+] -6 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    Exactly what a teacher with fragile ego would say

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (3 children)

    Hopefully you'll learn one day?

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  • [–] -1 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Learn to shut up and be obedient? Hopefully never

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago* (1 child)

    Not to be so obtuse and confrontational, lest you miss an opportunity to learn from another person. I'm sure by now you live a mostly lonely life though, so what's the point?

    Being bristly over the internet has pretty much zero risk compared to real life though so might as well dig into the hostility, right?

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  • [–] 0 points 8 months ago

    Just to be clear I am not the one that started the hostility. You did it with your passive-agressive "you should have learned from the teachers".

    And no I am not lonely and have good friends, they just don't fall into the authoritative narrative.

    Considering teachers are right just because they are teachers is the kind of injustice I will continue fighting even if you consider it worthless.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago (3 children)