Arrowhead boss calls for middle ground in AI debate

November 17th, 2025 - 04:09pm By Alex Forbes-Calvin, PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

The head of Helldivers studio Arrowhead, Shams Jorjani, has said there needs to be a middle ground in the AI debate in the development space. 

Speaking to The Game Business – as reported by VGC – the development vet said that any discussion on the use of AI in game development is incredibly polarised, with people bedding in on one side or another. This follows controversy surrounding Embark Studios using generative AI in its recently released Arc Raiders and previously The Finals. 

“This is such a trigger point for big parts of the games industry today,” Jorjani said. “We’re waiting for the courts to decide what is fair use and not, and there may be some similarities to the whole ‘it’s so over’, ‘we’re so back’, black and white takes of everything.

“I find that anything that is [an] AI-related debate in the games industry ends up being on both ends of the spectrum. Either we have Square Enix executives talking about 77 per cent being automated through QA, or we have developers who feel that their livelihood is completely on… the very fabric of their being is being threatened and therefore all AI is bad AI.

“Maybe could it be that reality is somewhere in the middle? Could it be?”

Tags:

• ai
• development