In response to recent claims that games featuring AI-generated content were being banned fromSteam, Valve has released a statement clarifying the company’s policy regarding AI content on the platform. The company has not previously articulated an official stance on the matter, creating some uncertainty among developers about whether AI-generated assets could be used inSteamgames.

A recent post on Reddit from an aspiring game developer first introduced the claim that Steam was not allowing games with AI-generated content. In the post, user potterharry97 asserts that they had attempted to publish a game on Steam which contained “a few assets that were fairly obviously AI generated” and was barred from doing so by the platform. The reason apparently given for the ban was that Steam “cannot ship games for which the developer does not have all of the necessary rights,” and the developer was told to remove all such content. The only alternative would be if the developer could prove that they owned the legal rights to all content used to train the AI that generated the content. This post garnered a lot of attention, as often happens withcontroversial bans from Steam, enough to eventually prompt a response from Valve.

A week after the post from potterharry97, representatives of Valve released a statement to several outlets intended to clarify the company’s official stance on AI-generated game content. In the statement, Valve claimed that it does not wish to discourage the use of AI tools in game development and that any bans of such content represent “a reflection of current copyright law and policies, not an added layer of our opinion.” Valve has recently facedlegal issues related to copyright on Steam, so this concern with adhering to intellectual property law is in line with the company’s recent behavior.

Valve’s statement went on to discuss the challenges of reviewing games with AI-content, citing the “legal uncertainty” surrounding the new and rapidly evolving technology of AI. Valve, which is consistentlyworking to improve Steam and its services, said in its statement that the process by which it reviews and approves new games is likewise in development, set to “evolve over time” alongside new laws and policies in the countries where Valve operates.

While this statement offers some much-needed clarity on Valve’s official stance on AI tools, it does not seem to refute the claim made in potterharry97’s original post: as of now, it sounds like any games featuring AI-generated content will not be allowed on Steam. The copyright concerns in this case are understandable, and Valve is not the only company in the gaming industry to ban AI content in recent months. It was announced in April that AI-generated art would bebanned from theFinal Fantasy 14Fan Festivalthis year, amid similar legal issues related to copyright. Even outside questions of legality, there have been widespread debates across the internet these past few months over the ethics of using AI tools to create art. Despite their apparent potential, many have made the case that these learning models simply steal the work of real artists and repackage it for the use of others.