Xbox Manager Deletes Posts Claiming AI Use in Game Development

An Xbox strategy manager, Brandon Stirrup, removed his posts on X one day after he said that AI use is common across the games industry, according to Engadget. In the deleted comments, Stirrup claimed Xbox already uses the technology to build games and that anyone denying it was only pretending.

Stirrup also shut down his social media account soon after, though copies of the posts were saved elsewhere, Engadget reported. The episode has restarted discussion about how much generative AI really features in game production and how much it should.

The claim lands in the middle of a heated split over generative AI in games. Some see it as the medium's future, while others treat it as a passing problem. Xbox has not publicly set out a position on building games with AI.

Stirrup's remarks are not entirely out of step with Xbox's recent moves. The company recently announced Xbox Labs, a team whose creation was tied at least partly to a growing wave of AI-assisted game ports. That announcement strongly suggested the group would rely on AI too, without stating it directly.

Microsoft, which owns Xbox, is a major force in AI development. That connection has already drawn a BDS boycott against Xbox over the technology's use by the Israeli military.

Several of the biggest studios say generative AI should shorten development times. Capcom, Square Enix, Sega, Nexon and Activision have either shipped games using AI or committed to doing so. Epic Games has been unusually open about its use, and chief executive Tim Sweeney has pushed the technology hard on social media.

Industry surveys have reported adoption rates near 90 percent, but small sample sizes and loose definitions of AI raise doubts about how well those figures reflect the wider industry.

Opposition is concentrated among smaller independent studios that do not have shareholders to satisfy with talk of cost savings. Finji, the publisher of Tunic, Stardew Valley maker ConcernedApe and Strange Scaffold, the studio behind Clickolding, are among those speaking out.

Players are split as well. Some accept AI as part of future games, while others refuse to buy titles that use it, citing environmental costs, labor concerns or aesthetic objections. That has fueled tools such as a browser extension that highlights Steam's AI disclosures, along with grassroots efforts by developers to label their games as AI-free.