Jurassic World Evolution 3 is, by most measures, an authentically promising-looking game. You get to build your own Jurassic Park, a dream we’ve all had at some point or another while succumbing to our own hubris. This time around, the series is simulating 75 dinosaur species across generations, with traits both beneficial and pernicious getting passed on to dino-youths. There are “distinct female, male, and juvenile variants” with “unique social needs” and “brand new behaviors.” All that painstaking effort, and yet developer Frontier was planning to take the easy way out with non-prehistoric park partners – until recently.
Earlier this month, prospective players noticed an AI disclosure on Jurassic World Evolution 3’s Steam page. “Scientists’ avatars are created using generative AI,” it read. This led to hundreds of negative comments across multiple Steam threads, the kind of storm some developers would opt to try to wait out. As of this week, however, Frontier is singing a different tune: “Thanks for your feedback on this topic,” reads a post on the game’s Steam forum. “We have opted to remove the use of generative AI for scientist portraits within Jurassic World Evolution 3.”
Confusingly, some have suggested that Jurassic World Evolution 2 also used AI for scientist portraits, though the game’s Steam page includes no such disclosure. Then again, the game came out in 2021, before Valve began requiring developers to take this specific tack where AI is concerned. Aftermath reached out to Frontier for more information but did not receive a response as of this publishing.
In any case, this is a more or less optimal outcome compared to, for example, multiple companies on another dinosaur-themed game playing hot potato with accountability for hacky use of AI that serves no one, least of all the people pouring their blood, sweat, and tears into the rest of the video game.
“Good,” one Steam user replied to the devs’ post about removing generative AI from the game, “I’m sure you can afford an artist to create them for you. It’s not like Jurassic Park is a small IP.”
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