AI Generated Video Games Are Coming: How Do Game Developers Protect Rights in Their IP?

AI Generated Video Games Are Coming: How Do Game Developers Protect Rights in Their IP?

September 21, 2023, Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law

AI generated video games are coming. What remedies does a video game publisher have when its game is used to train an AI model? If the resulting model generates a new game in the same genre, under what circumstances would the distribution of that new game violate the rights of the original game’s owner? The authors argue that copyright law is uncertain on several issues related to the training of AI models and the use of those models to create new works of authorship. But contract law may provide stopgap remedies for game publishers to protect their IP rights until copyright law evolves to address these new technologies. Contract remedies may not be as good as copyright remedies because they are more difficult and expensive to assert, but the process of preserving contract remedies is a relatively simple one. In this article, the authors provide guidance on how the owners of video games can use contract terms to protect their rights in intellectual property.