Hasbro CEO Embraces AI for D&D, Sparking Controversy in Gaming Community

Guy In Charge Of D&D Says AI Is 'Supercharging Fandom'

The Dungeons & Dragons community is extremely skeptical of generative AI, and publisher Wizards of the Coast has come under fire in the past for using AI art in material for its games. But the CEO in charge of the D&D and Magic: The Gathering maker continues to sound like he's all in on the technology, recently calling himself "an AI bull" and speculating about how it could be used for D&D subscription services. Chris Cocks, the head of Hasbro who took over the toy maker back in 2022, told Semafor in a new interview that he's been using AI tools in his own D&D campaigns that he DMs for staff, like his sales team. One of these apparently included a Scooby-Doo theme complete with mini-figures, sound effects, and an "incredibly elaborate" PowerPoint presentation. "It was Scooby-Doo and The Haunting of Merkmiss Manor, and they had to go and figure out who the Merkmiss monster was, and unmask a bunch of local townspeople, and then clearly they weren't the real villains," he told Semafor. "It was evil Lyle Blackwood who was trying to steal the Blackwood fortune." It's unclear exactly how much of that particular session was made with the help of AI, but Cocks said he believes AI is "supercharging fandom" and will be "a great leveler for user-generated content" in the future. He also sees financial upsides for Hasbro. Possible examples mentioned by Semafor are "subscription services letting other Dungeon Masters enrich their D&D campaigns, or offerings to let parents customize Peppa Pig animations." This isn't the first time Cocks has praised the possibilities for generative AI in the toy and gaming space. "I'm probably more excited, though, about the playful elements of AI," he said during a Goldman Sachs conference last year. "I play with probably 30 or 40 people regularly. There's not a single person who doesn't use AI somehow for either campaign development or character development or story ideas. That's a clear signal that we need to be embracing it." In the past, Cocks pointed to having ChatGPT help with scripts and Bing's image generator create the art. It seems like it's only a matter of time before Hasbro is trying to sell D&D versions of those features directly to players. "We can leverage all of that to be able to build very interesting and compelling use cases for AI that can bring our characters to life," he said last fall. "We can build tools that aid in content creation for users or create really interesting gamified scenarios around them." That philosophy appears to be on a collision course with the current official stance by Wizards of the Coast's D&D team, which currently bans the use of AI in generating final products. "For 50 years, D&D has been built on the innovation, ingenuity, and hard work of talented people who sculpt a beautiful, creative game," the team wrote in a 2023 statement. "That isn't changing. Our internal guidelines remain the same with regards to artificial intelligence tools: We require artists, writers, and creatives contributing to the D&D TTRPG to refrain from using AI generative tools to create final D&D products. We work with some of the most talented artists and creatives in the world, and we believe those people are what makes D&D great."

Hasbro CEO, D&D DM, and self-professed "AI bull" Chris Cocks says AI is "supercharging fandom" which is "just net good for the brand"

Despite D&D's anti AI statement, Cocks seems to suggest the company should bring in more artificial intelligence tools for DMs As a D&D Dungeon Master, a lot of the skills Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks utilizes on a daily basis are relatively transferable: Leading teams into new territory, storytelling, and taking down mimics (of a very different sort). However, despite Cocks' dedication to his role as a DM in one of the best tabletop RPGs around, his opinions seem to be at odds with the Dungeons & Dragons franchises' official statement around the use of artificial intelligence. As the former lead of Hasbro's Wizards of the Coast unit, Cocks has been playing D&D for 40 years at this point. In his most recent campaign playing with his sales team, he's currently dabbling in a Scooby Doo-style adventure complete with an elaborate, SFX-infused powerpoint presentation. This he reveals in a recent interview with Semafor (The CEO Signal), in which he talks a little about the responsibilities that come along with being both a DM and a CEO. "Leading a campaign in D&D, the players have to trust that you have an outcome in store for them, and you're not going to do a total party wipe, as fun as that might be for a DM." The same can be said for leading any teams involved in the creation of some of the best board games around - they need to know that you're not just out to get them. This is something that Hasbro's D&D brand has exemplified in its anti AI statement from two years back, which was put in place to protect artists from having their work stolen by web-scraping AI. The statement reads: "For 50 years, D&D has been built on the innovation, ingenuity, and hard work of talented people who sculpt a beautiful, creative game. That isn't changing. Our internal guidelines remain the same with regards to artificial intelligence tools: We require artists, writers, and creatives contributing to the D&D TTRPG to refrain from using AI generative tools to create final D&D products. We work with some of the most talented artists and creatives in the world, and we believe those people are what makes D&D great." Almost in complete opposition to the statement, Cocks makes it clear that he believes AI is "a great leveler for user-generated content," having used it extensively in his own D&D campaigns. While using AI generated content for your own private games is generally permissible in the D&D community, his praising of it as a tool will undoubtedly concern many a fan. "It's supercharging fandom," Cocks notes around player and DM use of AI tools. "I think that's just net good for the brand." In speaking about certain AI platforms' failure to compensate creators, Cocks says "I think that's solvable." He notes that he could see AI models becoming more prominent for Hasbro, through D&D campaign-enriching subscription services for DMs, for example. In the interview, Cocks speaks a little around Hasbro's "Pivot back to play" - his plan to refocus after he admits the company had been pushing "the pendulum way too far towards the storytelling side". He says the refocus was one of his best moves since the company's concentration on storytelling "badly defocused us on investing in design and innovation [...] and developing our talent." The pivot involved cutting content spending by 95% thanks to a capital-light licensing strategy. Wizards of the Coast's official statement around artificial intelligence strictly positions the brand as a no AI zone, but with Hasbro's own CEO singing its praises and tossing around the potential for AI integrations for DMs, there's a lot of potential for the former Microsoft marketing exec's pivot toward play to take a far more tech-fuelled direction in the future.