LogInA questionable point of view, given Autodesk alone fired 1,350 workers a month ago to accelerate investments in AI.
In a new round of "big tech CEOs shilling for generative AI," Unity's newly appointed CEO, Matthew Bromberg – who took over after the infamous John Riccitiello's departure – has spoken in defense of artificial intelligence, claiming that, in his view, the massive layoffs the game development industry has been plagued by for over two years at this point are not driven by AI.
Speaking on The Verge's Decoder podcast, Bromberg touched on Unity's position on AI, reiterating his previous claim that the company remains "agnostic" about where and how 3D assets are created. Addressing concerns from creatives about being replaced by machines, the CEO stated he "doesn't think" the ongoing layoffs in the gaming industry are driven by AI, expressing belief that developers and publishers will steadily adopt AI-powered tools to produce more video games.
"I actually don't think that any of the layoffs we're seeing in gaming are driven by AI," he said. "I don't think that. I think what video game developers and publishers will do, as we talked about a little bit earlier, is if they gain efficiencies in the making of games, I think they'll make more games. And that's where they'll use that extra wiggle."
Moreover, Bromberg spoke about Unity's intention to be at the center of this potential future, where most games are built in large part by AI, pushing a vision of the gaming industry with automation taking on a more significant role.
"What we sort of believe will happen at the end of, maybe not the end, later in this process, is that there'll be human creators sitting in the middle of the process of creation of these games, using a platform to create them. And they will have vertically oriented agents that are helping them do so. An agent that specializes in physics, an agent that specializes in sound, an agent that specializes in I.O., whatever it is. And there'll be multiple people in that loop, and they will have those tools at their disposal, and they will need to bring them together in an interactive experience. We would like to continue to be at the center of that, and we think there is a need for a platform to be there."
While it's not unexpected for a tech firm director to defend AI in this day and age, Bromberg's perspective on artificial intelligence and layoffs is, to put it mildly, questionable, considering the many instances we've seen over the years of exactly that taking place.
Some examples include a third of translators and a quarter of illustrators in the UK losing their jobs to AI, Dropbox laying off 500 employees to shift focus to AI, Duolingo replacing translators with artificial intelligence, and Netflix launching a new generative AI initiative less than two weeks after closing its AAA development studio.
While an argument can be made that these examples aren't directly related to the gaming industry or are exceptions, just a month ago, Autodesk – the developer behind Maya and 3ds Max, tools widely used by game developers tools – cut 1,350 jobs to accelerate investments in AI. Sure, mass layoffs may not be entirely driven by AI – with many citing studios over-hiring during the pandemic as the main reason – but Bromberg's refusal to draw parallels may indeed come across as a disingenuous attempt to sidestep the issue.
Compounding the matter is Unity itself recently undergoing a wave of layoffs, which impacted entire departments, led to the dissolution of the Unity Behavior team, and was described as "massive" by several affected employees.
How is this related to AI, you might ask? Well, in a memo shared internally by the CEO and later obtained by 80 Level, Bromberg emphasized Unity's intention to invest more in AI, a goal reflected in Unity's 2025 roadmap presented at GDC, which promised to introduce more generative AI features to the engine. While it's impossible to definitively say whether Unity's focus on the controversial technology played a role in the latest layoffs – the sixth wave in recent years – it at least explains the CEO's reluctance to acknowledge AI as a major factor in the large-scale dismissals.
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