Xbox wants to replace video game QA testers with artificial intelligence


There’s a fear that AI will be used to replace certain jobs that humans normally do. As AI replaces artists and more, it looks like QA testers could be next, as Xbox wants AI to test games instead of humans.

Having artificial intelligence test video games over humans could be risky since they have to know what makes games enjoyable. Only time will tell if this will actually happen since we don’t expect machines to understand what makes games tick.

Why this Xbox boss thinks AI should replace QA testers

VGC reports that Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty asked AI researchers to develop a system that tests video games. While Booty is aware of the complexity of game design, he feels that these last-minute developer tweaks hurt the product.

“Some of the processes we have, have not really kept up with how quickly we can make content,” Booty said. “One of those is testing.”

Booty claims that these last-minute changes from designers cause video game delays, hence his hope to have AI QA testing. The company head feels that an AI QA tester could mean more games get shipped quickly, for better or worse.

“My dream – there’s a lot going on with AI and machine learning right now, and people using AI to generate all these images,” says Booty. “What I always say when I bump into the AI folks, is: ‘Help me figure out how to use an AI bot to go test a game.’”

Read More: Gaming company Nvidia ordered to stop selling AI hardware to China

Is it worth it?

While there are buggy games that get released, we think the Xbox head is overthinking quantity over possible quality. It’s hard to say if an AI can get this done better than humans, especially since they don’t play games.

Most QA testers will tell you that testing all these video games is a thankless job that doesn’t pay well. Despite the apathy this job can instill, it would be hard to imagine an AI fixing all of these problems.

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