"We should have simply let you know" — The Alters creators respond to generative AI controversy

The Alters started as a promising critical hit; in fact, our reviewer gave it a stand-out 4.5/5, and it's received pretty much widespread acclaim.

Unfortunately, The Alters has now found itself embroiled in an artificial intelligence (AI) controversy, as the latest game from 11 Bit Studios has drawn criticism for allegedly using generative AI in both its background in-game text and, more seriously, in its localization.

While these would draw criticism regardless, the worst part of the situation is that the use of generative AI has not been disclosed, despite Steam's policy that any kind of content created with the help of AI during development must be stated.

As the controversy was just heating up, 11 Bit Studios has just published a statement on the matter.

11 Bit Studios "This was never intended to be part of the final release. "

The full statement on Twitter from 11 Bit Studios states that the inclusion of generative AI created content within The Alters was "an oversight" and "not intentional". The full statement is embedded in the tweet below:

According to the studio, the AI-generated phrase in the sci-fi graphic was a placeholder used by a designer during development, and its inclusion in the final game was the result of an internal oversight. The studio emphasizes it was an isolated case and that it has since corrected it in a patch.

As for the localization issues, the studio admitted to using AI translations — but only for a specific batch of late-stage content: short movies shown in-game when characters watch television in the base’s social area. These videos were externally produced and added late in development. Faced with tight deadlines, the studio opted to use AI for quick translations rather than delay them or release them in English only.

The studio noted that the affected AI-translated content accounts for just 0.3% of the game’s 3.4 million words across all languages (around 10,000 words total) and that human-reviewed localization hotfixes are now underway.

Sloppy evidence left within the game

The first real clue was found just over a week ago and reported on The Alters subreddit. In the above screenshot, the user displays an image from the Command Centre in-game, which shows some scientific data and is likely to be overlooked by casual game players.

However, you can see at the top of the screen that it clearly states, "Sure, here's a revised version focusing purely on scientific and astronomical data," indicating that this was copied and pasted directly from a large language model (LLM) — an AI model trained on a large amount of data.

While some people shrugged off the issue — after all, it's background flavour text that's no different from lorem ipsum filler — the debate escalated significantly when evidence surfaced that AI was also used to generate text for the game's localization, with poor quality control, and again, no disclosure.

Using AI for localization is crossing a clear line

One Portuguese-speaking player of The Alters noted that the Brazilian Portuguese subtitles would frequently glitch or read awkwardly, such as, "Sure! Here is the translated text into Brazilian Portuguese: Every conversation two people can have, right? So we–”.

The unnatural phrasing, paired with what looks to be embedded prompt text strongly suggests an LLM was used without proper review or indeed editing.

Similar concerns were echoed by Korean translator Handong Ryu, who worked on the game and confirmed that sections of the Korean localisation showed "clear signs" of AI use, which he had no control over.

For those who can't read the image above, Handong Ryu had this to say on LinkedIn.

"I was responsible for translating the vast majority of the Korean version of The Alters. Unfortunately, the same issue exists in the Korean version as well, which makes it more likely that the second scenario you mentioned is closer to the truth. While no AI prompt has been exposed, I can confirm that the same section of the Korean localization shows clear signs of having been run through an LLM without proper editing.

"There has been significant backlash from the Korean gaming community, and it has been really disheartening to witness, especially since the criticism stems from a part of the game I had no control over."

Ryu's comment was in reply to the original, sharply worded post by Lucile Danilov, a professional localization specialist who criticized the lack of oversight and accountability from The Alters dev team.

"But this is a disgrace," Danilov said. "Seriously, leaving parts of an AI prompt in the lockit?! Talk about spitting in the face of your international audience!"

Danilov also laid out two possibilities: One, either a careless translator used AI to save time, or two, someone on the developer/publisher side inserted last-minute untranslated lines into a generative AI tool without informing their localization partners.

“This move undermines not just your team, but the entire industry,” she wrote, calling for developers to implement no-AI clauses in their contracts and enforce meaningful penalties when they’re breached.

Can we expect a slap on the wrist from Valve?

Since January 2024, Valve's Steam platform has required all developers to disclose the use of AI-generated content. For example, Call of Duty 6: Black Ops, which also found itself in a generative AI controversy last year, now clearly states on its Steam page, "Our team uses generative AI tools to help develop some in-game assets."

Any use in art, code, writing, and audio must be disclosed as part of the Steam Distribution agreement, a rule introduced to protect developers, artists, and writers from being replaced by AI tools.

At the time of writing, The Alters has no such disclosure on its Steam page, which begs the question: will Valve enforce it or not?

While the rule exists, Valve depends heavily on community reporting rather than its own proactive auditing. As one Reddit user pointed out, "If there's no real penalty, then this rule is pointless and you're going to see more and more devs break it."

Though, while 11 Bit Studios has pledged to remove the AI content in future patches, it may not feel it necessary to include the disclosure.

Comment from r/gaming

No theft of content like Marathon, but still a problem

I couldn't help but compare this scandal to the recent plagiarism controversy surrounding Marathon, Bungie's upcoming extraction shooter. In that case, digital artist ANTIREAL publicly accused the studio of using her artwork without permission, including blurred versions of her name still visible in-game.

Bungie later admitted that a former in-house artist had included her graphics in a texture sheet used during the alpha build, triggering internal audits and delaying the game’s release.

I'm not comparing the gravitas of the situation directly, but ultimately, the blame was laid on a former employee, and 11 Bit Studios has made a similar statement that this was a simple faux pas. While they haven't actually stolen anyone's original work, the use of generative AI without disclosure is clumsy and perhaps unethical.

Player sentiment, particularly among international audiences, is rather frosty at least on LinkedIn, but the response to the latest statement from 11 Bit Studios has been overwhelmingly positive at least on Twitter/X /X, where many commenters have written off the AI usage as "irrelevant" and "not a big deal."

In a week when another game, Jurassic World Evolution 3, publicly removed AI-generated content following community feedback, everyone's eyes are now on The Alters developers for how they navigate this.

I want to know what you think, does the use of generative AI in The Alters in this context make you think any less of the game?