Former Square Enix executive claims that 'Generation Z loves AI slop' and that 'complaining only about the graphics is emotional'
In recent years, the use of AI in game development has been on the rise. Many voices have raised concerns that generative AI models infringe on the copyrights of existing content during their training process, leading to debate over whether or not to use AI at all. Jacob Navok, a former director at Square Enix, spoke about the relationship between the game industry and AI.
'Gen Z Loves AI Slop' — Former Square Enix Exec Claims 'A Lot of AI Sentiment Is Driven by Emotion Rather Than Logic' - IGN
'Gen Z loves AI slop,' says former Square Enix exec, which means that Arc Raiders' controversial AI usage is just 'the tip of the spear' | GamesRadar+
https://www.gamesradar.com/games/most-gamers-arent-actually-bothered-by-gen-ai-in-games-says-former-square-enix-exec-many-studios-i-know-are-relying-on-it-and-art-or-voices-like-arc-raiders-are-the-tip-of-the-spear/
Navok is CEO of Genvid, the technology company behind Silent Hill: Ascension, an interactive drama in which the story changes with viewer intervention.
In November 2025, Navok commented on the growing popularity of the game ARC Raiders , which was officially released in October, saying, 'Despite the anti-AI sentiment you see in various articles, consumers generally don't seem to care.' There was a good reason for Navok's statement.
After its release, ARC Raiders was criticized for using synthetic voices, suggesting that the game was trying to cut costs by replacing voice actors with AI. The developers responded by saying that they were using synthetic voices, but not generative AI.
ARC Raiders employs two distinct AI technologies: reinforcement learning for enemy characters, which trains characters to learn movement patterns to make them more realistic, and text-to-speech (TTS), which synthesizes human voices to create new voices.
Regarding the latter, the developer countered that 'we pay humans appropriately,' 'we use a combination of recordings of real actors and TTS,' and 'we have no intention of replacing actors.' They also stated that no other AI is used beyond these functions. However, in light of the CEO of the developer's parent company, Nexon , stating , 'We need to think that 'all game companies are using AI' and 'all game companies are using the same or similar technology,'' the introduction of AI into game development has become a hot topic.
Navok cited the example of ' Steal a Brainrot ,' a game that attracted roughly 80 times the number of concurrent users of ARC Raiders, saying, 'All of the characters in this game are AI-generated. Gen Z loves this kind of sloppy AI and doesn't mind it. Activision isn't shying away from introducing AI, and the same goes for ARC Raiders.' He pointed out that the field of game development isn't moving in the way opponents of generative AI had hoped, and that generative AI is actually being actively used.
For all the anti-AI sentiment we're seeing in various articles, it appears consumers generally do not care.
— Jacob Navok (@JNavok) November 16, 2025
The biggest game of the year, Steal a Brainrot, had 30m concurrents or approximately 80x the ARC Raiders concurrents, and is named after/based on AI slop characters. (All… https://t.co/B3mexTjBcK
He also said, 'I should add that in-game art and voice acting are just the tip of the iceberg. Many studios I know use AI generation at the concept stage, and even more use the AI Claude for coding. You'd be hard-pressed to find a non-indie game that doesn't use Claude for coding.'
He added: 'The focus purely on the pictures, without questioning the code, shows that much of the criticism of AI is driven by emotion rather than logic.'
In fact, some critics of generative AI only criticize AI that generates pictures, but have no complaints about chat AI or translation tools that generate text, and in fact actively use them. Navok pointed out this contradiction.
The following documents summarize Japan's views on AI and copyright:
Regarding AI and copyright (March 15, 2024).pdf
(PDF file)
ARC Raiders is not the only game to be criticized for using generated AI content. In November 2025, Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was accused of using Ghibli-style illustrations, which were suspected to have been created using generative AI. In June 2025, developer Frontier Developments, which had said it would include generated AI content in Jurassic World Evolution 3, withdrew its use of generated AI following criticism. Ubisoft also removed generated AI content from its game Anno 117: Pax Romana after being criticized for using the content.
But at least some other major developers and publishers are actively pursuing AI: EA CEO Andrew Wilson has said that 'AI will be at the core of our business' by 2024, and Square Enix has announced that it will undergo major staff cuts and reorganizations, with 70% of its QA work now being handled by generative AI.
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