Video games have never been famed for the quality of their dialogue. In fact, the Guinness Book of World RecordsAn annual reference book listing world records, often including feats of human endurance. even has a record for the worst ever line of dialogue in a video game.

The current holder is the first Resident Evil game from 1996, in which the main character, Jill, is told: "Here's a lockpick. It might be handy if you, the master of unlocking, take it with you".

Now game companies are wondering if AIA computer programme that has been designed to think.  could do a better job.

Currently, game characters can only regurgitate set responses to players. But AI could allow them to "think" and generate unique replies - like a real conversation.

The companies are also hoping AI could bring down the time involved in production of games. These days, games have to be built on a vast scale to keep their players entertained. The 2018 game Red Dead Redemption 2 contained 30 square miles of landscape and 60 hours of music. 

This means games take years to produce. AI could speed up the process.

But others are not convinced. They say AI is still not powerful enough to create good games.

Writing a script, they argue, takes originality and imagination. All AI can do is mash together words they find from other sources. It cannot produce anything new.

Critics think AI-generated video game scripts would risk becoming a bland mush.

Still others think this is not really about making video games better. It is about threatening workers.

Workers in the video game industry often face terrible conditions. Some have reported working as many as 20 hours a day for no extra pay.

Workers have started to push back against this kind of treatment. Last year workers at game company Raven Software went on strike and voted to form a unionThe Northern, non-slave owning states that remained in the USA when the southern states seceded.. Surveys show that 78% of game workers would support a union at their company.¹

Industry leaders insist that bringing in AI is not about laying off workers. Richard Wilson, who runs TIGA, a body representing game developers, claimed AI would mean both more games and more jobs.

But some think it is no coincidence that game companies are starting to talk about AI now their workers are forming unions. They claim the companies want to use the threat of AI to keep their workers in line.

Yes: The constant demand for bigger and better games is breaking the industry. AI can take off some of the pressure by helping human writers and coders to produce top-quality games.

No: AI is no substitute for human ingenuityInventiveness and creativity. . All the evidence we have suggests that AI is incapable of producing anything new and exciting. All this will do is fuel a race to the bottom.

Or... This is not really about the quality of the games. Companies want to use the threat of automation to stop their workers from unionising, and to ensure that if necessary they can replace their human workforces.