AI is ‘core to our business,’ says EA CEO

EA CEO Andrew Wilson has stated that AI is “core to our business” and that the company has more than 100 “active new AI projects” supporting game development.

Yesterday, the company held Investor Day 2024, where upcoming games and innovations were discussed, including The Sims, Star Wars Jedi and Battlefield.

Still, AI was a key part of the presentation. Speaking about generative AI, Wilson said, “This remarkable technology is not just a buzzword for us, it’s core to our business.”

The company has more than 100 AI projects across three strategic categories, Wilson said.

Efficiency isn’t just about cutting costs, it’s about “doing what we do today faster, cheaper, and with higher quality,” he said. Expansion is about “giving our creative teams an exponentially larger canvas to create on” by adding depth and intelligence to characters and personalizing stories. Finally, the company will accelerate innovation and content creation through Transformation.

“For years, we’ve talked about how our games should deliver experiences that are always new and different,” Wilson said. “We predict that with generative AI, we can truly deliver on that promise for billions of people for billions and billions of hours.”

How are these AI projects being put into practice? Laura Miele, President of EA Entertainment and Technology, spoke at length about AI possibilities – after briefly discussing upcoming single-player games like Dragon Age: The Veilguard and the Star Wars Jedi games, as well as games like Apex Legends and The Sims.

According to Miele, EA’s game development infrastructure currently processes one billion AI requests per day. The company’s AI tools power in-game features for a stable gaming experience, personalized recommendations, and a fair and safe gaming environment.

One specific example of AI usage is in The Sims for the upcoming hub that will serve as a central platform for all series games. AI will power discovery tools, allowing Sims players to search for suitable in-game assets using photos instead of text.

Through photo-based search, players can find housing elements or even upload a photo of a real human to create their likeness. While powerful, there is also potential for abuse of these types of features.

Another example is EA’s new Script to Scene tool, which essentially enables game development via text or voice prompts. This includes character and scene creation, as well as live performances, all using generative art, AI-enabled game development, and procedural generation.

These are clear examples of how AI is already making an impact on game development. As Eurogamer reported in March, a report from Unity found that AI was already being used by 62 percent of studios, with character animation being the biggest use case.

And yesterday, Eurogamer reported on Nvidia boss Jensen Huang discussing the benefits of AI as a key component for improving graphics capabilities.

Other areas where AI is being used include NPCs, scriptwriting, and voice acting, all of which have received criticism. For more on AI in game development, check out our feature on how AI is changing video game development forever.