Gabe Newell Predicts AI Tools Will Reshape Game Development Landscape

Gabe Newell reckons AI tools will result in a 'funny situation' where people who can't program become 'more effective developers of value' than those who've been at it 'for a decade'

"Even if you're just a pure tool user you're going to find that the gains to utilising those tools are very, very high." Gabe Newell, the co-founder of Valve Corporation, recently gave an interview to YouTuber Zalkar Saliev. The full interview is yet to surface but a few shorts from the conversation have been released, including one about Newell's daily routine ("get up, work, go scuba diving"), and his thoughts on why startups chasing VC money makes no sense. Newell is asked at one point about the hot topic of the moment: AI. It's a field rife with promises, where the ultimate white whale is the search for artificial general intelligence (AGI), and there's little agreement on the best use cases for the technology as it is now. To take one example, you'll find people claiming that LLMs will soon replace human programmers, while others will rightly point out that LLM code is often filled with errors and needs so much human oversight it may be counter-productive. That's the question put to Newell by Saliev: should younger folk looking at this field be learning the technical side, or focusing purely on the best way to use the tools? "I think it's both," says Newell. "I think the more you understand what underlies these current tools the more effective you are at taking advantage of them, but I think we'll be in this funny situation where people who don't know how to program who use AI to scaffold their programming abilities will become more effective developers of value than people who've been programming, y'know, for a decade." Newell goes on to emphasise that this isn't either / or, and any user should be able to get something helpful from AI. It's just that, if you really want to get the best out of this technology, you'll need some understanding of what underlies them. "Even if you're just a pure tool user you're going to find that the gains to utilising those tools are very, very high," says Newell. "But your ability to use those tools will continue to improve the more you understand the underlying methods and mindsets of people developing machine learning systems. So I think it's both, and I think they're highly complementary." It's no surprise that Newell is generally positive on AI: this is a man who loves new technology, who's pushed Valve into various technical fields (some with enormous success, some not so much), and who co-founded Starfish Neuroscience, a company focused on neural interfaces. But it is perhaps worth adding a note of caution to his generally rosy view on how programmers and AI will interact: such as this story from a few days ago, in which 200 staff laid-off from King are being replaced by the AI tools they helped build.

Valve's Gabe Newell: Game creators who use AI will become 'more effective developers of value'

TL;DR: Valve's Gabe Newell advises game developers to learn and use AI tools to enhance programming skills and increase value in the competitive gaming industry. Understanding AI's underlying technology alongside practical tool use can boost creativity, efficiency, and long-term career prospects amid evolving game development demands. Game devs might want to learn AI to help boost their leverage and overall advantage in the games industry, Valve boss Gabe Newell says. AI is expected to help the games industry by streamlining operations and giving creators more tools, but it's also impacting jobs at a time when companies are aggressively cutting costs. Valve's Gabe Newell of all people offers some advice to game developers who are looking to augment their skills while staying competitive--using AI could make video game creators more valuable in the long run. In a recent Q&A with YouTuber Zalker Saliev, the patron saint of PC gaming offered his perspective on AI as it relates to programming and skill building, at least in the interactive space. Newell believes that workers in the field should make use of AI in some way, if for no other reason than to "scaffold" their abilities. Q (Zalkar Saliev) - Do we need to learn AI on the technical side, or do we need to learn how to use AI, as in the tools that we have right now? A (Gabe Newell) - "I think it's both. I think the more you understand what underlies these current tools, the more effective you are at taking advantage of them. "But I think we'll be in this funny situation where people who don't know how to program, who use AI to scaffold their programming abilities, will become more effective developers of value than people who've been programming, for you know, a decade. "Even if you're just a pure tool user, you're going to find that the games utilizing those tools are very, very high. But as your ability to use those tools improves, the more you understand the underlying methods and mindsets of people developing machine learning systems. "I think it's both, and I think they're highly, highly complementary."

Valve's Gabe Newell predicts AI will lead to a "funny situation" where "people who don't know how to program" could be "more effective" than people "who've been programming for a decade"

From his Steam throne, Valve billionaire says businesses should just "listen to your customers and focus on them" Valve co-founder Gabe Newell broke his latest period of silence in an interview with a YouTube channel that currently has 30 subscribers and seven videos to discuss his influencer-worthy daily routine, as well as his thoughts on the AI-filled future and how to build a business. The bizarre interview shorts are legit, Valve confirmed to PC Gamer, and part of a bigger conversation coming later this month. Across two videos, Newell digs into his business background and industry predictions. Asked about the value of investing in the technical side of AI or simply learning how to use AI tools, he responded: "I think it's both." "I think the more you understand what underlies these current tools, the more effective you are at taking advantage of them," Newell says of AI. "But I think we'll be in this funny situation where people who don't know how to program who use AI to scaffold their programming abilities will become more effective developers of value than people who've been programming for a decade. "Even if you're just a pure tool user, you're gonna find that the gains to utilizing those tools are very, very high. But I think your ability to use those tools will continue to improve the more you understand the underlying methods and mindsets of people developing machine learning systems. So I think it's both, and I think they're highly complementary." Newell's argument seems to be that effectively integrating AI tools into programming practices could be a big difference maker, even when put on the scale opposite additional years of experience. He doesn't sound quite as ravenous as folks like EA, which have been calling generative AI specifically "the very core of our business" since last year, but Newell clearly puts stock in the tech. Last year, a Valve engineer working on Deadlock said he cracked the game's new matchmaking algorithm using a code base provided by ChatGPT. "I think there are some skeptics who don't get how amazing this tool is," he wrote. Separately, Newell fielded a more general question about advice to folks planning or starting businesses. He dismissed the "deeply distracted" idea that businesses start with a pitch to raise capital, focusing instead on "creating value for people." "The capital will come your way, probably at a reduced cost than it would be otherwise," he says. "Having a big bunch of capital and then saying, 'Oh, I guess all those lies we told in our pitch dek, now we have to go out and hire a bunch of people to be on this trajectory.' I think that's a great way of destroying a bunch of money and wasting a bunch of people's time. "So I think the key is to ignore all the distractions around it and just focus on, how do we make our customers happier? If you listen to your customers and focus on them, it's ridiculously easier to build a business. The focus should always be on your customers and on your partners and on your employees. And then everything else will fall into place over time." It's hard to argue with these comments in the context of Newell's success and reputation as well as Valve's growth, which were largely fueled by turning Steam into the most dominant store in PC gaming and, handily, the best store for game discoverability across all platforms. I'm sure plenty of devs and players would like Valve to listen to just a few more things, and it's never good to be too trusting of any company, even a private one like Valve which certainly could've done worse things with the near-monopoly it's established, but PC gaming is the way it is today in part due to the enormous impact of Steam. Earlier this year, former Valve CMO Monica Harrington, who worked closely with Newell at many points, shared the inside story of forcing a publisher's hand with the threat that Newell and his team "would never ship another game."