{"id":1845933,"date":"2026-03-25T12:16:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T09:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1845933"},"modified":"2026-03-25T12:16:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T09:16:32","slug":"half-life-2-writer-erik-wolpaw-says-some-people-at-valve-are-looking-at-ai-tools-but-hes-not-worried-about-ai-taking-over-creative-writing-anytime-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1845933","title":{"rendered":"Half-Life 2 writer Erik Wolpaw says some people at Valve are looking at AI tools, but he&#8217;s not &#8220;worried about AI taking over creative writing&#8221; anytime soon"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"news\" data-article-group=\"news\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/news\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      News<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/half-life-alyx\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Half-Life: Alyx<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">Half-Life 2 writer Erik Wolpaw says some people at Valve are looking at AI tools, but he&#8217;s not &#8220;worried about AI taking over creative writing&#8221; anytime soon<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">It&#8217;s just &#8220;poking around&#8221; for now.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/ss_6868ae1644628f857e7df4b72a00fdf506f79c7f.1920x1080.jpg?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"Half-Life: Alyx - human NPC\" loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"ss_6868ae1644628f857e7df4b72a00fdf506f79c7f.1920x1080.jpg\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"321\"><figcaption>\n          <span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Valve<\/cite><\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Fran Ruiz avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/fran-j-ruiz-author.png?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"180\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Fran Ruiz avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"fran-j-ruiz-author.png\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"180\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"news\"><br \/>\n                    News<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/fran-ruiz\">Fran Ruiz<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      Contributor<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\nPublished on <time datetime=\"2026-03-25T12:16:32+00:00\">March 25, 2026<\/time>              <\/div>\n<div class=\"comments\">\n      <a class=\"comments__link comments-bubble\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/half-life-2-and-portal-writer-erik-wolpaw-comments-on-valve-and-ai-use?view=comments\" rel=\"nofollow\"><br \/>\n          7 comments<br \/>\n      <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mypop-header-wrapper\">\n<p><button class=\"mypop-button button wide\" data-state=\"follow\" data-type=\"tag\" data-uuid=\"162012ca-22d4-40d4-b848-a1773ab01786\" data-name=\"Half-Life: Alyx\" data-follow-text=\"Follow Half-Life: Alyx\" data-unfollow-text=\"Following Half-Life: Alyx\" data-aria-follow-text=\"Follow Half-Life: Alyx\" data-aria-unfollow-text=\"Following Half-Life: Alyx\" data-popup=\"true\" data-force-login=\"true\" aria-label=\"Follow Half-Life: Alyx\" title=\"Follow Half-Life: Alyx\"><br \/>\n  Follow Half-Life: Alyx<br \/>\n<\/button>          <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>So far, the headline story in 2026 has been AI. Whether it&#8217;s the furore around the whole <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/nvidia-responds-to-widespread-criticism-of-dlss-5-by-telling-us-were-all-completely-wrong\">DLSS 5 saga<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/crimson-desert\">Crimson Desert<\/a> developer Pearl Abyss shipping the game <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/crimson-desert-admits-it-used-generative-ai-for-early-stage-iteration-and-apologises-ai-images-were-not-replaced-before-release\">with art assets of gen-AI origin<\/a>, it&#8217;s impossible to avoid the topic in videogames and beyond. Today, renowned Valve writer Erik Wolpaw has chimed in.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"Half-Life: Alyx Reveal Trailer\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ce9BXHW3crI?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/ce9BXHW3crI\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">Half-Life: Alyx Reveal Trailer<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><a class=\"button video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ce9BXHW3crI\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figure>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/half-life-2\">Half-Life 2<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/portal\">Portal<\/a> co-scribe was part of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Zi0kGNknkPE\">19th March&#8217;s MinnMax Show episode<\/a> (hat tip to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamesradar.com\/games\/half-life-2-writer-says-valve-devs-have-been-looking-at-gen-ai-for-help-with-video-game-writing-its-the-one-place-where-i-feel-like-ai-is-worth-investigating\/\">GamesRadar<\/a>) where he got the chance to comment on the current usage of AI tools and where Valve, an infamously secretive developer, stands at the moment. Even though Wolpaw departed the company in 2017 to co-write <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/psychonauts-2\">Psychonauts 2<\/a>&#8216;s story, he returned to work on the VR-only spinoff <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/half-life-alyx\">Half-Life: Alyx<\/a> as a contractor.<\/p>\n<p>He revealed a &#8220;small group of people&#8221; have &#8220;been looking at some AI stuff,&#8221; adding it&#8217;s also &#8220;taught him some stuff&#8221; before underlining he isn&#8217;t &#8220;worried about AI taking over creative writing&#8221; anytime soon. According to him, artificial intelligence is still terrible at coming up with, and delivering, the compelling storytelling that most people connect with: &#8220;I&#8217;m not just saying that defensively. We&#8217;ve really been messing around with it. And like art, there&#8217;s a lot of questions about that, but I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s going to \u2013 anytime soon \u2013 be writing novels that are better than human.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He is, however, at least partially interested in how it could potentially help thinner writing for characters that react to players&#8217; actions (which reminds me of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/ubisoft-unveils-generative-ai-neo-npcs-and-the-spirit-of-peter-molyneuxs-milo-lives-on\">gen-AI NPCs talk<\/a> that&#8217;s gone nowhere so far): &#8220;If you throw enough artists at a game, enough humans can create the art for a game or almost any of the disciplines. The thing with game writing and game writing specifically is that we have always had to simulate&#8230; characters in the game reacting to whatever you do in real-time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>While he thinks it&#8217;s those areas that are &#8220;worth investigating&#8221; over time, he also rushed to make it very clear that Valve isn&#8217;t adding anything AI-generated to any of their games, at least right now: &#8220;This is just some people sitting around, being like, &#8216;This is a crazy technology \u2013 it would be kind of silly for us not to look into it at least.'&#8221; It&#8217;s a similar stance to Capcom&#8217;s, with the key difference being the Japanese giant <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/capcom-vows-not-to-use-generative-ai-for-final-assets-but-wants-to-improve-efficiency\">has made it official<\/a> already as it looks to boost productivity.<\/p>\n<p>Valve is known for its rather &#8220;relaxed&#8221; approach to creative thinking and development inside the company, whether it applies to its software or hardware side, with many ideas bouncing around before going anywhere or hitting the bin years into prototype development, so this doesn&#8217;t exactly come as a surprise. Will it lead anywhere significant? Time will tell, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/openai-shuts-down-sora-generative-video-app-disney-pulls-out-of-investment-and-licensing-deal\">it&#8217;s looking bad for &#8216;AI slop&#8217;<\/a> right now.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"preferred-source\" data-component=\"preferred-source\">\nLove Eurogamer.net? Make us a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\">Preferred Source on Google<\/a> and catch more of our coverage in your feeds.  <\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>So far, the headline story in 2026 has been AI. Whether it&#8217;s the furore around the whole <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/nvidia-responds-to-widespread-criticism-of-dlss-5-by-telling-us-were-all-completely-wrong\">DLSS 5 saga<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/crimson-desert\">Crimson Desert<\/a> developer Pearl Abyss shipping the game <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/crimson-desert-admits-it-used-generative-ai-for-early-stage-iteration-and-apologises-ai-images-were-not-replaced-before-release\">with art assets of gen-AI origin<\/a>, it&#8217;s impossible to avoid the topic in videogames and beyond. Today, renowned Valve writer Erik Wolpaw has chimed in.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"Half-Life: Alyx Reveal Trailer\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ce9BXHW3crI?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/ce9BXHW3crI\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">Half-Life: Alyx Reveal Trailer<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><a class=\"button video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ce9BXHW3crI\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figure>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/half-life-2\">Half-Life 2<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/portal\">Portal<\/a> co-scribe was part of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Zi0kGNknkPE\">19th March&#8217;s MinnMax Show episode<\/a> (hat tip to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamesradar.com\/games\/half-life-2-writer-says-valve-devs-have-been-looking-at-gen-ai-for-help-with-video-game-writing-its-the-one-place-where-i-feel-like-ai-is-worth-investigating\/\">GamesRadar<\/a>) where he got the chance to comment on the current usage of AI tools and where Valve, an infamously secretive developer, stands at the moment. Even though Wolpaw departed the company in 2017 to co-write <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/psychonauts-2\">Psychonauts 2<\/a>&#8216;s story, he returned to work on the VR-only spinoff <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/half-life-alyx\">Half-Life: Alyx<\/a> as a contractor.<\/p>\n<p>He revealed a &#8220;small group of people&#8221; have &#8220;been looking at some AI stuff,&#8221; adding it&#8217;s also &#8220;taught him some stuff&#8221; before underlining he isn&#8217;t &#8220;worried about AI taking over creative writing&#8221; anytime soon. According to him, artificial intelligence is still terrible at coming up with, and delivering, the compelling storytelling that most people connect with: &#8220;I&#8217;m not just saying that defensively. We&#8217;ve really been messing around with it. And like art, there&#8217;s a lot of questions about that, but I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s going to \u2013 anytime soon \u2013 be writing novels that are better than human.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He is, however, at least partially interested in how it could potentially help thinner writing for characters that react to players&#8217; actions (which reminds me of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/ubisoft-unveils-generative-ai-neo-npcs-and-the-spirit-of-peter-molyneuxs-milo-lives-on\">gen-AI NPCs talk<\/a> that&#8217;s gone nowhere so far): &#8220;If you throw enough artists at a game, enough humans can create the art for a game or almost any of the disciplines. The thing with game writing and game writing specifically is that we have always had to simulate&#8230; characters in the game reacting to whatever you do in real-time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>While he thinks it&#8217;s those areas that are &#8220;worth investigating&#8221; over time, he also rushed to make it very clear that Valve isn&#8217;t adding anything AI-generated to any of their games, at least right now: &#8220;This is just some people sitting around, being like, &#8216;This is a crazy technology \u2013 it would be kind of silly for us not to look into it at least.'&#8221; It&#8217;s a similar stance to Capcom&#8217;s, with the key difference being the Japanese giant <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/capcom-vows-not-to-use-generative-ai-for-final-assets-but-wants-to-improve-efficiency\">has made it official<\/a> already as it looks to boost productivity.<\/p>\n<p>Valve is known for its rather &#8220;relaxed&#8221; approach to creative thinking and development inside the company, whether it applies to its software or hardware side, with many ideas bouncing around before going anywhere or hitting the bin years into prototype development, so this doesn&#8217;t exactly come as a surprise. Will it lead anywhere significant? Time will tell, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/openai-shuts-down-sora-generative-video-app-disney-pulls-out-of-investment-and-licensing-deal\">it&#8217;s looking bad for &#8216;AI slop&#8217;<\/a> right now.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News Half-Life: Alyx Half-Life 2 writer Erik Wolpaw says some people at Valve are looking at AI tools, but he&#8217;s not &#8220;worried about AI taking over creative writing&#8221; anytime soon It&#8217;s just &#8220;poking around&#8221; for now. Image credit: Valve News by Fran Ruiz Contributor Published on March 25, 2026 7 comments Follow Half-Life: Alyx [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-1845933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1845933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845933\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1845933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1845933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1845933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}