Halo artist compared AI to a child and warned developers: "A harsh disappointment awaits you"

Halo Artist Compared AI to a Child and Warned Developers: "You're in for a Harsh Disappointment"

Eddie Smith, a former Bungie artist who helped shape the original Halo trilogy, pushed back hard on the gaming world's rush to lean on generative AI for creative work. He says the gap between hype and reality became painfully obvious while his team adapted The Wizard of Oz for the massive Las Vegas Sphere. The plan was to lean on AI to fill in missing image elements; that plan unraveled faster than anyone expected.

"I look at AI almost like a toddler. A very advanced toddler who has just learned to talk and follow simple instructions. But it's still a child that constantly needs to be guided and controlled."

Smith insists most frames still needed humans to clean them up — not a few tweaks, but serious, hands-on fixes. Backgrounds, character details, lighting — you name it — were touched up by artists, e.g., compositors and concept painters. After working with the tools up close, he says their real power is often overstated.

He singled out concept art as especially ill-suited for outsourcing to algorithms. Concept work, he argues, is where a project's direction gets argued into being; that kind of argument, with its missteps and sudden insights, is something he thinks only people can have.

"Developers are in for a harsh disappointment. I've already seen this process from the inside. At some point, everyone realizes: you'll still have to hire artists."

For Smith, AI is a helper — a time-saver here and there — not an art director or a creative team. He even sounded a little weary when describing false promises.

"If you don't understand what you want from the game yourself, AI won't help you. All the problems that prevent developers from finishing their projects won't be solved by AI. On the contrary — it will only complicate the situation."

As the industry debates generative tools, Smith's perspective is another reminder that tech hasn't shrugged off the need for human judgment. That doesn't settle the matter; it just complicates the checklist everyone keeps waving about.