AI Art in The Outlast Trials - Ongoing Concern

[Scabloonshki]

I really did not want to need to make a post like this, but after sitting on this issue for a bit, it's clear that more needs to be said about this.

Before I go any further, I want to state that this information I am about to share is nothing new. This has been more or less been an open secret since the went into early access in May of last year (possibly even earlier with the closed beta). Want to make that clear since some new players coming on from the full release might be confused.

Threads discussing AI art in Outlast Trials:
https://www.reddit.com/r/outlast/comments/13v1b2z/ai_generated_art_in_the_outlast_trials/

https://www.reddit.com/r/outlast/comments/17buyu8/i_have_great_respect_for_the_art_team_at_red/

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1304930/discussions/0/3841054241374445302/

A decent number of people seemed to think that this issue would be resolved before the full release, but we are now almost two months into the full release and not much has changed.

Recently, a support ticket was submitted to RB asking about the use of AI art in the Outlast Trials and if they plan to address it. The response claimed that no AI art is being used in the Outlast Trials.

This is something that, as far as I am concerned, has been proven to be completely untrue. There are multiple examples of sketchy looking art that currently exist in the game. Many of the art assets that have been brought into question are posters for cells, paintings in trials, decorations, photographs, and certain wallpapers in cells. Many of these have been outlined in a recent Twitter thread. The person who made this Twitter thread has also posted the same information to the official Outlast subreddit. Even art assets that have been tweaked in later updates still feature a lot of the same seemingly AI generated imagery.

https://x.com/sean_gause/status/1782537880700846117

https://www.reddit.com/r/outlast/comments/1catjhn/aigenerated_images_in_the_outlast_trials/

As demonstrated by the threads linked above, many of these questionable assets still exist in the game and RB has not provided any official explanation as to why these assets look the way they do. Even if there is a perfectly reasonable reason as to why some of the assets look AI Generated, RB's silence on this issue has just allowed this concern to stew and garner more negative attention within smaller circles. Doubly so since they have privately denied the use AI art.

Now, I'll put myself on blast here and say that I've personally never seen eye-to-eye with the claims that AI art is "plagiarism." However, I still think the use of it is an ethical grey area nonetheless. There is always going to be the gut feeling in me that a real artist should have created those assets by hand. I also don't like the fact that AI art may discourage people from wanting to actually learn how to create art themselves without a machine doing it for them. I speak as someone who is an artist themselves and acknowledges that RB does have an amazing art team, which makes this situation all the more puzzling.

UPDATE: I've removed a chunk of this post that claimed that RB might be breaking Steam's policy on AI. Since posting this I have found a couple other instances of games that use AI art (such as High on Life) that don't have any notes listed on their Steam page regarding AI use. I am going to assume there is something about the current policy that I don't understand since I can't find any instances of games warning about AI on their Steam page. Also, I want to make it clear that we currently don't know for sure if the person responding to the support ticket claiming AI art wasn't being used is actually fully associated with RB. There is potential that this was someone from a third party that wasn't aware. Then again, this is the reason why myself and many others would really like it if RB just came out and made a statement on this. Furthermore, don't interpret this post as any kind of call to action or anything like that. Not trying to tear anyone down here, I just want people to be informed.

I and many others believe that they should be transparent about the use of AI in their game and outline it on their store page out of principle. I understand that RB is a small team, and maybe this was done as a way of saving resources on a project that they’ve already dumped a ton of money into. But I strongly believe they need to be more transparent about this.

Red Barrels, please make an official statement about this.

UPDATE 2: The community manager from Red Barrels has reached out to me and stated that the information presented in the support ticket shown in those forums was a miscommunication. She stated that AI is used for certain art assets in the game, and she has just now added a AI content disclosure on the Steam store page. She has also clarified that Red Barrels does not plan nor want AI to take over art direction/creation in the future.

While I am still iffy about the use of AI generated images, I appreciate them listening to feedback from myself and others by coming out and being more transparent about this.

[Mickterminator30]

1+ I Agree

Cleanse the Orphans has photographs and they all look AI - you can easily tell by the fingers, hands look abnormal.

[Kutah]

+1 Common red barrel L

[Maya-Neko]

Steam will for sure not do anything about it, because that would be a lawsuit they wouldn't be able to win. Even if these picutres are AI generated, then they've most likely been trained on material, where the copyright most likely already expired or which is copyright free to begin with (and good luck proving, that it was trained with illegal material, if you want to die on that hill).

[Scabloonshki]

Originally posted by Maya-Neko:

Steam will for sure not do anything about it, because that would be a lawsuit they wouldn't be able to win. Even if these picutres are AI generated, then they've most likely been trained on material, where the copyright most likely already expired or which is copyright free to begin with (and good luck proving, that it was trained with illegal material, if you want to die on that hill).

If that's the case then Red Barrels should say it instead of leaving everyone confused. And no, these images are almost 100% generated by AI. Look at the garbled text for the poster with the skeleton on it. It's a dead giveaway.

[Player3162]

yup since playtest they have been using AI art. the orphanage is a clear sign, all the images they use are clearly AI. plus i have noticed that they randomly change some of the images, there was a creepy nun they had a while back before the release date....but then after that they replaced it with another less creepy image of a nun but it's so obvious it's all AI art. not sure why they claimed no AI was use....i'm starting to wonder if the voices we hear from NPC are AI too, the video game The Finals uses AI voices for the commentators.....i've been wondering if RB has use AI voices for the NPCs in Outlast....if so....that is disappointing and Lazy.

[Scabloonshki]

Originally posted by IV:

yup since playtest they have been using AI art. the orphanage is a clear sign, all the images they use are clearly AI. plus i have noticed that they randomly change some of the images, there was a creepy nun they had a while back before the release date....but then after that they replaced it with another less creepy image of a nun but it's so obvious it's all AI art. not sure why they claimed no AI was use....i'm starting to wonder if the voices we hear from NPC are AI too, the video game The Finals uses AI voices for the commentators.....i've been wondering if RB has use AI voices for the NPCs in Outlast....if so....that is disappointing and Lazy.

No, they didn't use AI voices. There is plenty of voice actors listed in the credits and in BTS footage.

[HD.RhinoInAHat]

Why does it matter? For the old photos its no different than just googling "royalty free house" or something and throwing some filters over it, same for "royalty free which face/cartoon skeleton." Sure a note would be more 'honest' but I really don't think it matters- red barrels made a fun game, i dont care if a couple pictures that ill maybe see once are ai or not

[Scabloonshki]

Originally posted by HD.RhinoInAHat:

Why does it matter? For the old photos its no different than just googling "royalty free house" or something and throwing some filters over it, same for "royalty free which face/cartoon skeleton." Sure a note would be more 'honest' but I really don't think it matters- red barrels made a fun game, i dont care if a couple pictures that ill maybe see once are ai or not

I'm not saying that the use of AI in this particular circumstance depreciates the overall quality of the game or makes it lazy/worthless. I just think that people should be informed on whether a work is using AI. It's something that is important to a lot of people and I do believe people should be informed. Even if I personally don't agree with AI being plagiarism I understand why people take issue with it and would want to be informed.

[Nacho]

I don't care if they use AI art or not as long as it looks good (though I understand the ethical concerns). But I do care that they don't admit it.

[trapezoidpitch]

Love this game but they need to just admit it lol

[Mickterminator30]

AI makes the game feel less real at times, the images do not look real. The least Red Barrel can do is hire some artists and make resembling photographs to the characters in the game. Some of the AI looks stupid.

[Walker☻//︻ ---]

Never thinking about and i dont really care but its most likely to avoid copyright issues and devs time to make wall art

[IcemayneXXV]

Originally posted by IV:

yup since playtest they have been using AI art. the orphanage is a clear sign, all the images they use are clearly AI. plus i have noticed that they randomly change some of the images, there was a creepy nun they had a while back before the release date....but then after that they replaced it with another less creepy image of a nun but it's so obvious it's all AI art. not sure why they claimed no AI was use....i'm starting to wonder if the voices we hear from NPC are AI too, the video game The Finals uses AI voices for the commentators.....i've been wondering if RB has use AI voices for the NPCs in Outlast....if so....that is disappointing and Lazy.

If AI were doing the voices, I feel there would be more voice lines since you can just update them without having to call people back in for recordings. We still have the same voice lines, and the people are credited with voicing them. Only reason I would be cool with AI voice lines is if the person they took the voice from was cool with it and credited, and if they actually used the AI to have even more situational voice lines. The creepy nun though, there is one in the basement of the chapel that is pretty creepy iirc. I am pretty sure it is still there.

[Armie]

Don't care.

[Scabloonshki]

In case it wasn't already clear, this whole thing has been resolved. Mods can go ahead and lock the thread.