New Microsoft gaming chief has “no tolerance for bad AI”

But Asha Sharma faces scrutiny for lack of gaming experience.

See full article...

 

[sarusa]

My read on the article is that the new Xbox chief is suggesting that their integration of AI is going to be thoughtful and subtle so as to avoid those reputational issues that you highlight.

This problem with that is that Microslop is the living embodiment of 'Hello fellow kids! Did I hear you might be up for some radical and xxxtreme AI summary of your autoexec.bat?' No, you get Copilot nagging. You get Teams. You get the Windows 11 Start menu and Taskbar. You get constant nagging to use AI every time you start Visual Studio and even freaking Paint. The company has never once done anything thoughtful and subtle in its entire existence (Bill Gates was not that kinda guy - thoughtful and subtle are pointless social niceties, like showering).

I am actually not opposed to all 'AI' because it has some great uses like OCR, image upscaling, and protein folding. It's a tool you need to use properly. But every time I have tried MS's 'AI' products they fail spectacularly. Copilot is a freaking joke compared to Claude or Gemini and their image generator was abysmally terrible. There is no way they are going to somehow suddenly integrate AI thoughtfully and subtly, everything in their DNA is aggressively against it.

But it would be very Microslop of her to think they could do it and have no idea how badly they were failing at that. So she could legit think they were not packing the games full of AI slop while we're slipping and sliding in it. I don't think she's cynically lying, she probably believes this.

 

[maxoakland]

Cool but I have no tolerance for any AI

 

[bushrat011899]

Does the public outside of terminally online "Gamers" give a crap? I figured the general gaming public just buy games they want to play on platforms that have them.

Not directly, but that angry group of capital-G gamers end up directing most discourse anyway. Regardless, this appointment won't actually matter; angry bigots will always find something to justify their misery.

 

[H2O Rip]

When one interviews for a job, there are some qualifications that make them a good candidate for it.
The question to me isn't "are you a gamer", its are you a good organizational leader for a brand of this magnitude - and what is the company looking for that person to achieve. I'm not sure we have a clear picture of any of that here, but it certainly makes me feel old.

 

[bugabuga]

So instead of "bad, soulless AI" XBox will get "good, soulful, attentive AI", right? Is it actually what XBox needs though?

I don't think Microsoft has been aware of what users actually want for quite some time. Or worse, they technically know it but just do not care and march into some hall of mirrors goal that simply doesn't exist in real life, with everyone who's aware too scared to say a word against the current plan.

Throw in AI-driven hardware crisis and it makes me think they've hired her just to say "oh well, so sad that head of XBox didn't live up to expectations, all her fault, we'll replace her shortly" but not actually have a good gamer-oriented, reasonably priced games-and-hardware plan.

 

[Socks Mingus]

Sharma noted that “AI has long been part of gaming and will continue to be,”

If the whole gaming executive thing doesn't work out, I see a future in politics for this lady.

We have always been at war with The Mushroom Kingdom.

 

[RichyRoo]

Using AI for long term efficiency, and high quality AI produced artwork, is fine though. Humans CRAFT games, but AI does the actual work.
It's just a carefully constructed deception, same as any other corporate communication

 

[darealest_1]

While everybody is blaming Sarah bond for the everything is an x box strategy, they really didn’t have a choice since there are enough x box consoles in the market to sustain the bight development costs of games. This all goes back to losing the x box one digital library generation. I don’t know if it can ever be overcome

 

[Geebs]

Spoiler: that's how actual people outside your bedroom look like

Tell me you’re not English without telling me you’re not English…

 

[paulfdietz]

New Microsoft gaming head says they will only use "good" AI.

In unrelated news, Microsoft game characters are being retconned so they have variable numbers of fingers, limbs, and sometimes heads.

 

[Geebs]

They will fill their games and a new console with AI shit and go 'Oh this is AI but it's not shit, it's awesome, like Copilot and Clippy and Teams!' and Slopya will get up on stage and tell us AI Revenue is way up because every Xbox game sale counts as 'AI Revenue', like every Office sale.

I went out of my way to downgrade my personal copy of Office to the no-Copilot edition and it’s still constantly showing me popups offering to read my emails for me. I have to wonder if I’m still being counted as ‘AI revenue’

 

[Varste]

She thinks AI will help with "declining birthrates" as well, like every other Silicon Valley weirdo.

 

[paulfdietz]

She thinks AI will help with "declining birthrates" as well, like every other Silicon Valley weirdo.

AI girlfriends cannot help but have an effect on the formation of healthy human relationships!

 

[peachpuff]

AI has long been part of gaming and will continue to be

How long have you been at your job?

 

[RZetopan]

What she claimed sure was convincing, just like the public claims that other MS executives made and then rampantly violated when they were off camera. Watch her closely to see if she actually continues the hallowed MS tradition.

 

[TMilligan]

My gaming culture these days is playing wobbly life with my young son. I awoke from my slumber when gamepass went to $30 and I hit the cancel button. I hope she can get things figured out at MS. I’ve enjoyed all three consoles plus PC over the years.

 

[RetconRob]

This is the final stage of xbox enshittification. Asha doesn't need to have gaming experience, because MS's gaming division is now a vehicle to spread AI.

 

[Jeff S]

Having that large number of the very poor is a critical part of the billionaire class's existing, though. Without it, there'd be nobody to work for literal pennies a day in US dollars while the end users pay literally thousands of times more for the final product. This is well known among the very wealthy and while a few try to fix it, most refuse to even consider doing so.

Well, the United States of America likes to often complain about things like the dollar being too strong vs other currencies, making everything way more expensive to make or do in the USA . . . and also complain about trade deficits. Well, if you lift the poorest half of people in the poorest 1/2 of the countries in the world up out of dire poverty, guess what? They have more money to buy stuff, to import stuff from other countries. Their wages will increase. Their currencies will get stronger verse the dollar.

I swear the USA creates or significantly contributes to most of the very problems we complain about.

 

[Safranin O]

I'm not holding my breath because Microsoft... but if she can get a sense for what gamers truly want (not what gamers spout endlessly on the interwebs these days), then maybe she can steer this ship in the right direction? She doesn't absolutely need to be a big gamer herself. She just needs to care about gamers and good games.

 

[RuntimeFire]

I'm always torn on the whole "Toxic gamer" as a cultural group thing. I mean don't get me wrong I have definitely come across them, but whether its just my personal experience or because Aussie has a better mob of gamers, I just find the vast majority of "gamers" are not terrible people.

My gaming group consists of 50 year olds, late 20s/early 30 year olds and a bunch of early 20 somethings and late teens. Of about 30 different people we had 1 guy who was what I would call toxic, which all came out in a game of Chivalry 2 when a simple comment about some internet other person being good at the game turned into a rant about the Israel-Palestine situation(he was on the genocidal side). He has since been booted from the group as this was pretty indicative of his behaviour in general. Overall everyone is pretty good. Yes there is "off" humour at times but overall everyone is tolerant and reasonable.

That doesn't mean we don't see it. We mostly prefer playing amongst our group because "hell is other people" but that really only applies to those with the shield of internet anonymity. Those we play regularly with who become known, even if only virtually, just don't fit the tropes.

I don't know, I am not saying it doesn't exist, because I can clearly see it does. But I just am not experiencing it in my group/s

I don't think you're wrong at all. Sure there's going to be a load of toxic people just like there is in any hobby. I think the difference is the anonymity of a gamertag makes some feel they can be openly stupid. The people I play with are all normal people just looking for a way to relax after a day at work. Haven't noticed any of the stereotypes with them the few who have shown themselves to be that way inclined have been filtered out over the years.

 

[approximate_pi]

Is it necessary to have experience in gaming for what is essentially a managerial position?

I think Boeing right now is a good example of what happens if you abstract the top line manager from the products you make too much

Does she have to have experience in gaming to be an effective manager of the division? No, there are some folks who are good enough at being generalists to do that job. In general though having someone familiar with the product, and passionate about the product, usually works out better than someone who’s purely a manager of managers and doesnt have a connection to the product

Personally, at my job, the dude 2 levels above me, my boss’ boss, who’s the division director, and my boss, also a director, both have deep familiarity with both the product and its implementation. It helps a lot

 

[wrecksdart]

I don't wholly prescribe to the belief that you game developers should "ignore" gamers, especially when we are talking about established IPs, but enslaving yourself to them in appeasement cycles is a recipe for disaster every time. Playing games does not make them good at game design and their thoughts on that subject need naught be trusted because even ignoring the wider context of broader issues with "gaming culture," gamers themselves are inherently biased since they generally want the way they play to be busted & overpowered at the expense of the playing experience for anyone else.

I feel like this critique is also applicable to much of the commentariat regarding books, movies, and TV shows.

 

[Dano40]

The sexist chuds really went ham on the social networks when this news was released.

It’s equivalent to hiring an MBA to run a tech company like Intel for example, wait that was done recently three or four times in a row, what is the current status of Intel?

 

[Dark Jaguar]

It's almost as bad as fan casts. "This person matches the physical description of the character!" No further considerations needed.

Oh geez, I've got a minority position on the little reindeer in the upcoming One Piece season. They made the guy look JUST LIKE the original character, and in one sense I'm impressed... but then I realized just how expensive putting this guy in scenes is actually going to be. There's going to be a LOT of "off screen" chats with this little guy, and I feel like being LESS accurate may have been the best call, using some practical makeup on a young actor for a different interpretation of a hybrid human/deer mode. Don't get me wrong, it's not ruining the show or anything for me, but I feel like in the grand scheme of things, it'll be an expensive pain to deal with this guy in every shot he's in and they're going to be very selective. I'll admit the rubber effects look a lot more convincing this time around. Just looking at the long history of Fantastic Four movies illustrates just how hard that can be, so I'm impressed there.

Back to your point, I'm willing to sacrifice some "accuracy" in the name of a better show. Heck, I'm willing to sacrifice a LOT of accuracy in some cases. The Warriors movie has almost nothing in common with the original comic, except for themes, but I wouldn't change a thing about what they did with that movie. More than that, why are these people head hunting gigantic movie stars? That's a Hollywood problem, don't get the fandom started on it too. It's worth finding brand new talent no one's ever heard of.

 

[RickRoyLeonPrisZhoraRacha]

Those statements don't read like a clear line against the use of AI tools to me. In fact, they seem deliberately crafted to leave lots of doors at least partially open.

xbox gaming is dead, jim.
Live long and prosper (until the servers are shutdown on your fav game).

If AI was used to stop cheats, and make gaming fun again, perhaps. But MSFT wants AI to produce games, monitor games, ...

But no. Titles keep getting hyped and AAA titles are now few and far. And release dates under collusion, like movies, that only get released in the end of 3rd Quarter or middle of 4th Quarter to optimise returns, not when gamers have time to enjoy...games.

 

[HaikuOezu]

The kind of AI we’re talking about has not, in fact, long been part of gaming

It literally could not have been considering that the seeds that sprouted the current “AI” were sown in 2017 and did not materialize into usable tools until like 2023

Time is relative I guess but I’d argue less than five years is not “a long time”

It’s really insulting to imply that the AI of yore, which was bespoke algorithms that simulate intelligence for videogame characters is the same as the AI of today, which is throwing insane amounts of computational power at a problem and let the machine come up with something

One takes time, effort and ingenuity to design systems in a creative way, the other takes… the amount of electricity to light a small village for a day I guess

 

[Voxera]

Outside of scientific uses, "bad AI" seems a bit redundant.

Not really,

Games have been using some form of AI for at least 40 years, as opponents.

The AI we here talk about as BAD AI is the generative AI, especially when used to create assets and content,

But I have seen experiments using genAI as part of game play (still a bit to slow and probably to expensive) but to enhance dialog, allowing you to speak to the NPC's and have them actually understand instead of selecting from premade prompts could add a lot of immersion, IF they can make it work well.

So I do think there are ways to use genAI to actually improve some types of games, but then you have to think outside of the box, not "cheaper development by cutting out people" but rather more adaptive dynamic game play which will probably take a lot MORE developers and resources.

But either way, we should keep the use of AI separated, is it to improve the actual game play, or is it a cost saving measure. the later is always going to be bad, the former might be good if done right

 

[prh99]

I am not convinced. With all the money poured into AI by Microslop there will be continued pressure to use it. To realize those promised productivity gains checking the output gets minimized and in an industry already notorious for buggy/broken releases.

Also Windows 11 and MS claiming 30% of their code is written by AI. Not exactly encouraging.

I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[MagicDot]

I couldn't care less if she has any gamer chops. Watching my son play Fortnite some years ago made me realize that so-called gaming culture is essentially lazy, insecure bozos acting out their angst for not being able to grow up. What does concern me, however, is her association with AI. Nothing good will come from integrating AI into games. We'll get slop, microtransactions, and gambling culture rammed down our throats. Gamers will hate her and Wall Street will love her. Guess who'll win in the end.

 

[huskcummerbund]

Not really,

Games have been using some form of AI for at least 40 years, as opponents.

The AI we here talk about as BAD AI is the generative AI, especially when used to create assets and content,

But I have seen experiments using genAI as part of game play (still a bit to slow and probably to expensive) but to enhance dialog, allowing you to speak to the NPC's and have them actually understand instead of selecting from premade prompts could add a lot of immersion, IF they can make it work well.

So I do think there are ways to use genAI to actually improve some types of games, but then you have to think outside of the box, not "cheaper development by cutting out people" but rather more adaptive dynamic game play which will probably take a lot MORE developers and resources.

But either way, we should keep the use of AI separated, is it to improve the actual game play, or is it a cost saving measure. the later is always going to be bad, the former might be good if done right

Yeah... I don't have any interest in talking to video games. For the same reason I don't have any interest in talking to appliances. Invariably, it will just aggravate me.

 

[Dano40]

I think Boeing right now is a good example of what happens if you abstract the top line manager from the products you make too much

Does she have to have experience in gaming to be an effective manager of the division? No, there are some folks who are good enough at being generalists to do that job. In general though having someone familiar with the product, and passionate about the product, usually works out better than someone who’s purely a manager of managers and doesnt have a connection to the product

Personally, at my job, the dude 2 levels above me, my boss’ boss, who’s the division director, and my boss, also a director, both have deep familiarity with both the product and its implementation. It helps a lot

Ford GM and Chrysler are other examples of what happens, so is US Steel, and who is that other company General Electric and probably the current IBM?

Six Sigma is a Voodoo business technique (abstraction at its finest) hopefully Microsoft isn’t headed down that road. But the way they have been running their gaming portion of the company over the years one has to wonder?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Sigma Boeing is/was a disciple of this crap and so was Motorola of Schaumburg, Illinois…..

Usually large old companies that have been in business for a long time and lose their way are susceptible to Six Sigma, and also young companies that grow too fast can/will also fall into the trap.

Hiring/promoting a person who has no knowledge of or care of gaming in Microsoft case is a big red flag.

Note: One can even make the case that AI is/will be the ultimate abstraction.

 

[paulfdietz]

One useful application of AI in video games would be in voice interfaces with people of different languages, or who are hearing impaired. Another would be to recognize interactions that violate terms of service.

 

[AngryEssay]

I'm not surprised that there is a Venn diagram between perpetually angry and and hyperactively online video gamers and equally perpetually angry and hyperactively online AI talking-point maximalists. (the latter kind both positively and negatively for that matter)

 

[truth serum]

One useful application of AI in video games would be in voice interfaces with people of different languages, or who are hearing impaired. Another would be to recognize interactions that violate terms of service.

I'm pretty sure she is there to implement some system wide equivalent of "Recall" throughout Xbox. Or at least as close as they can technically and legally get away with. She is there to harvest data and sell it. It's literally her expertise and why Satya put her there in the first place.

No doubt the higher ups have run the numbers and come to the conclusion that game revenue is small time compared to what they can get by folding Xbox into their greater companywide data harvesting ecosystem. Implementing "AI" will simply be used as the delivery system/convenient cover story to get them there.

 

[rhavenn]

No, that's not a fact at all.

Birthrates (measured as TFR - total fertility rate) have been declining for decades in the US and most other developed countries. US TFR peaked in the 1950s (~3.8) and has generally been below replacement (2.1) since 1971. Provisional 2024 data based on nearly complete records (99.9%) received by the National Center for Health Statistics show the US TFR at 1.6, which is actually a very very slight increase (less than 1%) over 2023.

Similar patterns exist in Europe and East Asia (countries such as South Korea and Japan have TFRs around 0.7-1.3), places you will note are not rife with "GOPers / Republicans / boomers."

There are many reasons for the general trend of declining birthrates, but ultimately, it's tied to modernization. The strongest driver is often thought to be increases in women's agency, education and participation in the labor force. These raise the opportunity costs of children, causing women to delay childbearing (resulting in fewer children) or deciding directly to have fewer children (education is correlated with family size). There's also more widespread access to contraception and family planning (generally speaking), urbanization, longer lives, more intensive parenting expectations, longer work hours/culture, etc.

Cost of living is definitely also a factor, as is broader societal pessimism, but this can't be blamed "mostly" on the groups you call out. The data itself contradict this; US fertility rates are generally higher in Red states than in Blue states. See also here.

Well, Korea and Japan have their own version of "live to work" mentality and serving the "company" / older generation. People don't have the time, energy or willingness to have kids or even meet a partner when you're expected to work yourself into the ground. Also, to be fair, countries like Norway and Sweden also have low birth rates and while there are certainly 2-income families they also have some of the best vacation and maternity / paternity leave policies you can find, so in many cases it can also be people just don't want to have kids because they don't feel they need them for whatever reason.

I appreciate the break down in numbers, but while I'm certain plenty of women want to work, etc...and I'm a million percent cool with them having the agency / choice to do so .I'm sure there are plenty of potential moms or dads who would appreciate the 1-income family and the white picket fence, but just can't due to wage stagnation and cost of living increases vastly outpacing wage increases. I'd say your phrasing is wall papering over the bigger issue of a single earner household is rarely affordable these days. "Modernization" should improve lives, but your use of it reads more like "corporatization and trickle up capitalism" is the way it has to be in a modern society.

I agree with you that "red states" certainly have higher birth rates due to lack of women's health care options or down right more prevalent beliefs it's a women's job to have babies, but that doesn't mean the Blue states aren't paying for them via taxes for food vouchers and child support payments, etc....It's not like the Red states have it better than the Blue states when it comes to income and cost of living. The Blue states subsidize them heavily.

 

[giroro]

Keep in mind, this is how Microsoft Executives Define "Bad" and "Good" AI:

Bad AI: Using 3rd party or open tools to eliminate all "creative" employees and art from our design teams, while converting custom software design into literal "software factories" (where a single existing design just gets copied and pasted over and over, forever).
Good AI: Using Microsoft Proprietary tools to eliminate all "creative" employees and art from our design teams, while converting custom software design into literal "software factories" (where a single existing design just gets copied and pasted over and over, forever).,.. And I guess also the game logic that controls NPCs in games, which is a red herring that is completely unrelated to anything anybody is saying about AI right now.

She's not drawing a line in the sand against AI. She's doing the exact opposite while hoping to shut up the meager complaints of all you pitiful consumers.

 

[Juggernaut_408]

RIP XBOX, her trajectory makes no sense.

 

[giroro]

The big problem is that she's claiming two things which are 100% counter to everything else Microslop is doing when taken together:

• She claims they're not going to fill games with AI slop
• She claims they're going to revitalize Xbox hardware

I could believe they would try for either of those on their own, fine, but not both of those together. AI is being rammed sideways up the ass of every product at Nadella's demand, and if you're not doing that you're not getting budget and your project is being backwatered if not outright shut down.

Why would anyone think that the XBox division, which they've already let languish horribly, would be the one exception to that? If they're not slowly sunsetting it then I think the first item is the one that will be cast aside. They will fill their games and a new console with AI shit and go 'Oh this is AI but it's not shit, it's awesome, like Copilot and Clippy and Teams!' and Slopya will get up on stage and tell us AI Revenue is way up because every Xbox game sale counts as 'AI Revenue', like every Office sale.

She 100% intends on ensuring that games get flooded with the laziest/ugliest/cheapest generated AI possible - She was just programmed to disagree that counts as "slop". Microsoft's official policy is that the low-quality output from their knockoff tools isn't slop. It only counts as "slop" when their competition does it.

Which is actually progress. Just a month or two ago Microsoft had an executive out there pretending like "AI Slop" doesn't exist from anyone at all, to the point it was acting like it had never heard that phrase before, and couldn't contextually figure out what it means.

That's assuming there are actual irl people behind these names and faces - and maybe there isn't. If all Microsoft wants their executives to do is copy/paste some marketing-friendly but ultimately meaningless Copilot slop, then why even have a human in the mix? It seems like their biggest waste of money.

 

[graylshaped]

Ford GM and Chrysler are other examples of what happens, so is US Steel, and who is that other company General Electric and probably the current IBM?

Six Sigma is a Voodoo business technique (abstraction at its finest) hopefully Microsoft isn’t headed down that road. But the way they have been running their gaming portion of the company over the years one has to wonder?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Sigma Boeing is/was a disciple of this crap and so was Motorola of Schaumburg, Illinois…..

Usually large old companies that have been in business for a long time and lose their way are susceptible to Six Sigma, and also young companies that grow too fast can/will also fall into the trap.

Hiring/promoting a person who has no knowledge of or care of gaming in Microsoft case is a big red flag.

Note: One can even make the case that AI is/will be the ultimate abstraction.

You misidentify the trap.

 

[EnerJi]

They will fill their games and a new console with AI shit and go 'Oh this is AI but it's not shit, it's awesome, like Copilot and Clippy and Teams!' and Slopya will get up on stage and tell us AI Revenue is way up because every Xbox game sale counts as 'AI Revenue', like every Office sale.

She 100% intends on ensuring that games get flooded with the laziest/ugliest/cheapest generated AI possible - She was just programmed to disagree that counts as "slop". Microsoft's official policy is that the low-quality output from their knockoff tools isn't slop. It only counts as "slop" when their competition does it.

There's no doubt in mind that this is 100% the plan. The remaining question, really, is whether they plan to absolutely gut staff from their studios in the process.

Imagine that Satya wants to prove to the world that Microsoft's AI tools are capable of making workers enormously efficient, in order to convince enterprises to adopt Microsoft's AI at massive scale. One of the best ways to do that would be to demonstrate it internally at Microsoft, but of course that's risky - if things don't go well, one of their cash cows might suffer.

Enter the Xbox division. It's separate and distinct from Microsoft's big moneymakers, and it focuses on the things that LLMs purport to do well - making content! So Satya moves an AI executive over the division with a mandate to prove that AI can work at scale. If the initiative fails, it's not such a big loss as Xbox is barely making any money anyway. If it succeeds, it could turbocharge Microsoft's AI business. Limited downside and huge upside.

I suspect it's going to be a bumpy few years for Xbox and Microsoft's game studios - buckle up.