Hasbro CEO Suggests AI Integration for Dungeons & Dragons, Sparking Debate

Hasbro's CEO Saw a 'Clear Signal' That It Was Time to Embrace AI for Dungeons & Dragons

In an interview with Entrepreneur this summer, Cocks also shared how Hasbro balances tradition with innovation as a company in business for over 100 years. AI is already being used in game development -- but it could soon go even further when it comes to the roleplaying games that millions of people play, says Hasbro's CEO. At a Thursday Goldman Sachs event, Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks said that the company is using AI internally to help develop games in "mostly machine-learning-based AI or proprietary AI as opposed to a ChatGPT approach." Hasbro will use AI in the future as a knowledge and development assistant, giving the technology a seat at the game table. Development is just one part of the broader AI puzzle, though. Cocks says he's more excited about how the technology could impact the day-to-day gameplay of Hasbro's customers. Related: 'Embrace the Change.' How the CEO of a 101-Year-Old Toy Company Adapts to an Ever-Evolving Industry "If you look at a typical D&D player... I play with probably 30 or 40 people regularly," Cocks said. "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." Cocks gave examples of AI helping D&D players with storytelling and introductions and said that those use cases could apply to other brands within the company. Hasbro's portfolio includes Transformers, Star Wars, and Marvel. Over 50 million people around the world play Dungeons & Dragons. In an interview with Entrepreneur in July, Cocks said that one of the most exciting projects he was working on was a refresh of Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition. He also spoke more broadly about how Hasbro balances tradition with innovation as a company in business for over 100 years. Related: She Turned Her Airy Side Hustle Into a $255 Million Business and 'Captured Lightning in a Bottle' -- Here's How "While history doesn't repeat, it definitely rhymes -- so major technology innovations and major changes in entertainment are something Hasbro has faced many, many times," he said at the time. "Probably the biggest lesson I've learned from it is to embrace the change and not fight it. When we embrace [change], we win, and we come out on top." Cocks also emphasized the importance of safe, responsible AI development at the event on Thursday, and stated that he wanted to pay creators for their work and make sure to label AI-generated content.

Hasbro CEO Says AI Will Become Core Part of Dungeons & Dragons

After a series of AI scandals at the gaming company Wizards of the Coast, the CEO of its parent company Hasbro has made a sweeping revelation. During a talk at a Goldman Sachs conference, Hasbro honcho Chris Cocks admitted that the entertainment conglomerate not only plans to build bespoke AI systems in the future, but that it's already begun using it in development of games including "Dungeons & Dragons" and "Magic: The Gathering." "Inside of development, we've already been using AI," Cocks said in response to a question about AI's potential to bring down production costs during the financial firm's annual Communacopia tech conference. "It's mostly machine-learning-based AI or proprietary AI as opposed to a ChatGPT approach. We will deploy it significantly and liberally internally as both a knowledge worker aid and as a development aid." While the logistical aspects of the technology seem fairly par for the course in the world of out-of-touch CEOs over-relying on it, Cocks then suggested that it will become a part of D&D gameplay. "I'm probably more excited though about the playful elements of AI," he said. "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." After paying lip service to using AI "responsibly" and "paying creators for their work," Cocks then doubled down on his point. "The themes around using AI to enable user-generated content, using AI to streamline new player introduction, using AI for emergent storytelling -- I think you're going to see that not just our hardcore brands like D&D but also multiple of our brands," the Hasbro CEO said. These comments, as the Bell of Lost Souls gaming blog notes, come not only amid the generative AI bubble that's so enraptured CEOs across the economy, but also amid massive scandal for Hasbro's subsidiary Wizards of the Coast, Less than a month after outright banning its artists from AI at the end of 2023, WOTC admitted at the beginning of this year that despite its staunch rule, the company itself had used generative AI to create an ad for "Magic." Later, the company issued an FAQ about its anti-AI policy in the aftermath of that debacle, asking fans to bear with the people who run the company while they essentially separate the wheat from the AI chaff. "Human beings are fallible, whether it is a conglomerate of human beings (like a company) or a single human being (like an artist)," the FAQ reads. "We have been consistent in our position [against AI]... and we want our community to know that we are working to ensure they can see us deliberating on how best to meet that commitment, even if we all occasionally stumble along the way." From issuing a statement that contradicts its own marketing copy to having its big boss endorse the sweeping use of AI, Hasbro clearly has some miscommunications going on -- and while the company figures it it all out, its fans will no doubt keep ripping on the company.

Hasbro's CEO Thinks D&D's Adoption of AI Is Inevitable

Whether it's players or developers, Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks feels like it's not if, but when, Dungeons & Dragons will embrace AI. The role of large language models and image generators in the TTRPG community has been a thorny topic ever since widely-accessible models became increasingly available in the last few years-with fans by and large wanting to keep the adoption of their usage as far away as possible. But even with all the controversy they've faced, the owner of the biggest RPG in the world, Dungeons & Dragons, thinks AI is going to come for the Forgotten Realms and beyond sooner rather than later. "Inside of development, we've already been using AI. It's mostly machine-learning-based AI or proprietary AI as opposed to a ChatGPT approach. We will deploy it significantly and liberally internally as both a knowledge worker aid and as a development aid," Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks recently told attendees at a Goldman Sachs event (via En World) of Hasbro's approach to AI more broadly. The company, both at large and more specifically at D&D and Magic: The Gathering publisher Wizards of the Coast, has been on a hiring spree in the last year for positions to help develop AI integration, so far on digital endeavours at the studio like potential video games. But Cocks doesn't just think a wider embrace of AI is coming at Hasbro and for D&D, but from players themselves, too. "I'm probably more excited though about the playful elements of AI. If you look at a typical D&D player... 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," Cocks' AI comments continued. "That's a clear signal that we need to be embracing it. We need to do it carefully, we need to do it responsibly, we need to make sure we pay creators for their work, and we need to make sure we're clear when something is AI-generated. But the themes around using AI to enable user-generated content, using AI to streamline new player introduction, using AI for emergent storytelling, I think you're going to see that not just our hardcore brands like D&D but also multiple of our brands." While Cocks can attest to the players he has personally interacted with, Wizards of the Coast at large, at least so far, has been keen to emphasize that Dungeons & Dragons is a game about human creativity, made by actual people for actual people to play. Last year the company updated its policies for both Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering to explicitly prohibit the use of generative AI tools in any part of the creative process for official work on either game. The move was surrounded by a series of embarrassing controversies for Wizards relating to generative AI. In summer of 2023, the D&D Fifth Edition sourcebook Glory of the Giants saw several internal illustrations from regular D&D artist Ilya Shkipin replaced in updated versions of the book after he admitted to using generative AI programs to help illustrate them. Earlier this year, just weeks after Wizards had updated its guidelines against the use of AI, a promotion for the then-upcoming Magic set Ravnica Remastered was accused of using AI imagery. Wizards originally defended the art as being created by humans, only to apologise and admit that AI-generated elements were indeed used in the image days later.

Hasbro CEO says all his mates are using AI for their D&D games, which is apparently 'a clear signal that we need to be embracing it'

Wizards of the Coast -- that is, the folks who make Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering -- have had a very public, very bumpy relationship over the use of AI in marketing materials and sourcebooks lately. Every time it happens, the resulting outrage kicks up enough dust to cause thorough backpedalling and apologies. That hasn't stopped Hasbro (WoTC's parent company) CEO Chris Cocks from getting very excited about using AI in D&D, though. Speaking at a Goldman Sachs conference (via Futurism), Cocks casually mentions that "inside of development, we've already been using AI," before clarifying that it's mostly machine-learning or proprietary stuff: "We will deploy it significantly and liberally internally as both a knowledge worker aid and as a development aid." However, in a bizarre line of thought, Cocks -- who apparently plays D&D with "30 or 40 people regularly" (I barely have time for two TTRPG games, Chris, are you just in a bunch of West Marches campaigns?) notes that "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." Look -- I'm not going to sit here on a throne of ethical superiority. While I've never purposefully touched generative AI to run any of my TTRPG groups, I have, absolutely, taken to Pinterest to grab one or two reference images for my games in the past. Homebrew campaigns devised entirely from the sweat of the DM's brow are few and far between. I'll concede that generative AI isn't too many steps far removed from that, and if it's just four random people I'll never meet mucking around on a Discord server, whatever. I don't approve, but it's your life. But campaign development? Character development? That's like, 90% of my job as a DM, and part of the reason I enjoy running games in the first place. Cocks continues: "The themes around using AI to enable user-generated content, using AI to streamline new player introduction, using AI for emergent storytelling -- I think you're going to see that not just our hardcore brands like D&D but also multiple of our brands." This enthusiasm runs countermand to the spirit of Wizard's AI art FAQ, released not too long after the above controversies, which reads: "Magic and D&D have been built on the innovation, ingenuity, and hard work of talented people who sculpt these beautiful, creative games. As such, we require artists, writers, and creatives contributing to the Magic TCG and the D&D TTRPG to refrain from using AI generative tools to create final Magic or D&D products." In fairness, this is specifically referring to AI art -- but it's a far cry from Cocks' seeming hunger for the stuff. I don't know. If the tech didn't exhaust the snot out of me, I could see an alternate, less old-man-shouts-at-cloud version of myself taking a generative AI story for a jolly once or twice as a novelty experience. But, like most uses of generative AI to 'make' artwork and writing -- what's the point? Aren't you robbing yourself, more than anything? AI can't replicate the deep joy in seeing a twist you devised to shock your players land, or in seeing your table grow attached to your NPCs. No proprietary D&D story generation tool could replicate the giddy feeling you get when someone has lore questions, or wants to work an element of your world into their backstory. It can't give you the satisfaction of a well-balanced encounter or a homebrew mechanic you made paying off. It can't let you, well, tell a story with your mates, which is half of why any of us bother. Secondary tools, like character creation or rules questions, I don't care much either way. Such models would be unreliable, as AI is notorious for hallucinating information, but it's not the end of the world. AI could also hypothetically fill the role of, say, a random name or NPC generator, something plenty of DMs use already via the traditional methods. I just don't see the appeal of Cocks' apparently 10-player strong games cooking up worlds and characters without the human touch, and his enamourment with the tech has me fretting that Hasbro will continue trickling the worst of videogame nonsense into pen & paper.