Updated Steam Policies Now Allow the "Vast Majority" of Games That Use AI

After taking some time to familiarize itself with the "fast-moving and legally murky space of AI technology," Valve returned this week with updated Steam policies regarding games that use AI in them. The short version of Valve's new policies is that developers will have to disclose the use of AI in their games when submitting them to Steam, and players will have a new tool at their disposal that allows them to report illegal or questionable content that they find in games which use AI. These new changes are effective as of today based on the wording of the announcement.

Overall, Valve said the new Steam policies regarding AI will allow for the "vast majority" of games that use AI technologies to be accepted, though there will of course be some exceptions.

Steam Games That Use AI

Valve said that moving forward, it's looking at AI content in one of two ways. "Pre-Generated" content means that the contents in question were made using AI tools during the development process, and "Live-Generated" content that's made while someone is playing the game by using whatever tools are implemented. 

For the former, the stance is pretty straightforward. Developers will disclose the use of pre-generated AI in their games, and Valve will check that content against its broader policies just like it would any game to make sure nothing is out of line.

The second part is a bit trickier since live-generated AI content can presumably be influenced by players. When submitting the content survey for their games' approvals, developers will have to inform Valve of "what kind of guardrails" are in place to avoid illegal content.

In the event that illegal content does end up being present in AI due to the unpredictable nature of AI, players will be able to use the in-game overlay to report content on the spot if it's presumed to be illegal.

As Valve mentioned previously, the vast majority of games using AI will be allowed thanks to these new policies, but there will be one exception: adult, sexual content made via live-generated AI. Valve said games with that sort of content won't be allowed "right now" which leaves room for that to change in the future, but that's the stance being taken at this time.

"Today's changes are the result of us improving our understanding of the landscape and risks in this space, as well as talking to game developers using AI, and those building AI tools. This will allow us to be much more open to releasing games using AI technology on Steam," Valve said. "The only exception to this will be Adult Only Sexual Content that is created with Live-Generated AI – we are unable to release that type of content right now."

Valve added that developers' statements about the use of AI in their games and how it's implemented will largely be included on the Steam Store pages for games, so players should know up front how AI is being used in whatever they're playing.