Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said the company currently uses AI primarily for security and moderation on Xbox Live, and there is no indication of its use in the creative process. He specifically emphasized the expansion of the brand's presence in the historically difficult Japanese market.
During a panel discussion at the Paley International Council Summit in California, as reported by IGNSpencer said the company primarily used AI to moderate voice and text chats “to ensure that the conversations and topics that are happening, and for protected children's accounts and other things, and who might be talking on those accounts with those people, are blocked by the parents or guardians who set those controls.” He described it as “[not] the most glamorous use of AI, but one that I fundamentally believe in.”
He said the company has left decisions about broader use of AI to individual teams within the organization. “On the creative side, I really leave that up to the teams,” he said. “I've found that creative teams will use tools that make their job easier when it makes their job easier, and any top-down order that says, 'You have to use a certain tool'… is not really a path to success. I look at the teams and we make the tools available and I kind of let that trickle down naturally.”
Spencer has expressed interest in how AI can help with content discovery by making recommendations based on user history, but said he has no plans to use it in production.
“In terms of manufacturing, which I think a lot of people do… there's no intention in our model for that to happen. I think more about the pace of creativity, perhaps the number of things we can try and risk before we decide on our next opportunity. But our use of AI today is much more immediate than in the creative field.”
This approach contrasts with EA's announcement the same week partnership with StabilityAIafter recent Business Insider article claiming employees are rejecting a top-down mandate to use AI across the business. as part full commitment to technology. The Financial Times reported this. Cost savings from artificial intelligence are the cornerstone of the company's proposed buyout. a consortium including the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund.
In a previous conversation on TGS now reports FamitsuSpencer emphasized the company's commitment to the Japanese market, which includes Ninja Gaiden 4 publisher Microsoft Game Studios and Hideo Kojima's OD, and said the region is seeing audience growth.
“The number of hours spent on Xbox in Japan has grown by about 20% over the past year,” he said. “This figure includes play on consoles, PC and the cloud. So, looking at these numbers, we expect that if we provide content for Japanese players, then this number will continue to grow.”
The increase will be small, given historically low rates in the territoryand is supported by a broader definition what counts as xbox. The company's latest move towards a more platform-independent future is the announcement Halo coming to PS5.
