{"id":1677248,"date":"2026-08-29T03:50:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T03:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yPEscYDDYHHadZ9zYcAoRg"},"modified":"2026-08-29T03:50:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T03:50:27","slug":"id-softwares-former-co-owner-says-they-absolutely-wouldve-used-gen-ai-back-in-the-day-john-carmack-would-be-like-making-skynet-or-something","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/id-softwares-former-co-owner-says-they-absolutely-wouldve-used-gen-ai-back-in-the-day-john-carmack-would-be-like-making-skynet-or-something\/","title":{"rendered":"id Software&#8217;s former co-owner says they absolutely would&#8217;ve used gen AI back in the day: &#8216;John Carmack would be like making Skynet or something&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<p>Generative AI is a hot-button topic in the industry, and for good reason\u2014it&#8217;s been kinda destructive, whether that&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/hardware\/memory\/there-are-limits-to-how-much-prices-can-be-raised-says-sk-hynix-chairman-about-memory-crisis-but-im-not-sure-the-market-will-care\/\">jacking up hardware prices<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/gaming-industry\/microsofts-200-laid-off-king-devs-are-reportedly-being-replaced-by-ai-they-helped-build-while-its-absolute-s-show-hr-department-looks-away-and-whistles\/\">putting people out of a job<\/a>\u2014and while there have been some fairly mundane use cases that seem helpful, it&#8217;s been hard to escape the sheer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/software\/ai\/something-has-gone-completely-wrong-palantir-ceo-rants-on-live-television-about-his-problems-with-the-ai-business-model-why-are-they-charging-for-tokens-if-its-so-valuable\/\">sense of mania<\/a> that&#8217;s built around its use. Or the bad PR, juiced out of the sheer exhaustion we&#8217;ve all had from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/software\/ai\/mark-zuckerbergs-rambling-ai-manifesto-is-6-434-words-of-high-handed-platitudes-and-dubious-conclusions\/\">executives promising the matrix or something<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>So, naturally, it came up in a conversation with Tim Willits, the CCO of Saber Interactive and also the co-owner id Software from 1995-2019. Speaking to PC Gamer&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/author\/joshua-wolens\/\">Joshua Wolens<\/a> at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/gaming-industry\/live\/news\/gamescom-2026-live-hub-the-latest-news-and-previews-from-the-biggest-gaming-event-of-the-year\/\">Gamescom 2026<\/a>, he notes that: &#8220;As most people know, we are experimenting with AI in future games. We don&#8217;t have it here right now, but we announced [Rideshare Simulator] and I want to clarify things because there&#8217;s some misconceptions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re wondering why we&#8217;re talking about a Rideshare sim, here&#8217;s some context: Saber landed in hot water earlier this month over it, because it seemingly delayed its AI disclosures on Steam for a <em>while<\/em>, and was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/software\/ai\/saber-interactive-denies-replacing-writer-with-chatgpt-on-its-new-driving-game-but-says-it-will-use-ai-as-the-number-of-passengers-in-the-game-is-infinite\/\">exposed as using AI by a former writer<\/a> who claims they were booted off the team in favour of it.<\/p>\n<p>That same writer was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/gaming-industry\/sabers-ai-rideshare-stimulator-controversy-almost-closes-on-high-note-with-ceo-apology-then-he-calls-portal-scribe-who-mocked-him-an-unsuccessful-writer\/\">badmouthed by Saber&#8217;s CEO Matthew Karch, who later apologised<\/a>. Willits says that Rideshare&#8217;s main campaign mode and all of its side missions are written by humans, and the AI components are only used for an optional game mode called Free Ride: &#8220;We&#8217;re going to use AI for the passengers, so we can deliver new stories.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So that is only possible if we use AI for that\u2014this is an experiment. We at Saber want to figure out how we can use this technology, so we&#8217;re doing it at a small scale to try to learn. We&#8217;re like everyone else, we&#8217;re just trying to figure this out. But there is no generative AI in our big titles. No Hellraiser, no Turok, none in Stuntman.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I feel like an asterisk has to hang over that &#8220;only possible&#8221;\u2014while, yes, churning an infinite stream of dialogue for an optional mode is only possible with generative AI, a free ride mode with enough conversations for it to not grow stale absolutely could&#8217;ve been cobbled together with actual writers and voice actors. Sure, you&#8217;d run out eventually, but I don&#8217;t think anyone&#8217;s hungry to make Rideshare Simulator their forever game.<\/p>\n<p>Still, Willits emphasises: &#8220;We want to experiment, and I do believe that there will be a company\u2014I don&#8217;t know who\u2014but some game development company will create a game that uses AI in such an amazing way that everyone will be like, &#8216;That&#8217;s it, that&#8217;s what we need to do&#8217;.&#8221; He then goes on to joke that &#8220;someone needs to come up with the &#8216;Half Life 2 of AI&#8217;, something that&#8217;s so amazing that it just launches some type of killer app.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I remain characteristically unconvinced, though in fairness to Willits, I do at least think that\u2014if generative AI does find a use as the core of a videogame\u2014it&#8217;ll probably be a new genre of its own, rather than trying to create an infinite RPG with infinite NPCs. An act which would just shake out to make something <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/gaming-industry\/game-development\/the-bigwigs-who-want-ai-generated-npcs-and-writing-think-youre-too-dumb-to-appreciate-a-good-story-dont-prove-them-right\/\">unappealing and meaningless<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>The thing that makes me cynical is we keep watching money being burned and datacenters being built precisely because the tech doesn&#8217;t really seem all that useful for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/software\/ai\/87-percent-of-game-developers-are-already-using-ai-agents-and-over-a-third-use-ai-for-creative-elements-like-level-design-and-dialogue-according-to-a-new-google-survey\/\">anything other than busywork<\/a>. When it takes centre-stage, it produces <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/third-person-shooter\/embark-ceo-says-a-real-professional-actor-is-better-than-ai-after-the-studio-re-records-some-arc-raiders-dialog-with-real-humans\/\">voice acting that&#8217;s bland<\/a>, writing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/rpg\/larians-head-writer-has-a-simple-answer-for-how-ai-generated-text-helps-development-it-doesnt-thanks-to-its-best-output-being-a-3-10-at-best-worse-than-his-worst-drafts\/\">that&#8217;s terrible<\/a>, and art devoid of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/software\/ai\/i-f-king-hate-gen-ai-art-hooded-horse-chief-says-if-were-publishing-the-game-no-f-king-ai-assets\/\">direction or memorability<\/a>, even as it gets more technically proficient. <\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll eat my artificially-generated hat with a side of humble pie if Willits&#8217; &#8220;Half-Life 2 of AI&#8221; game materialises, but a lot of people have swung at that ball and missed, and each time I feel like the bat is a little smaller. Still, Willits says that id Software probably would&#8217;ve used generative AI if it was a thing back in the day\u2014because the studio was always at the cutting edge.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Yes! Oh, of course. I mean, look at what [id Software] has done. In 1999, when we released Quake 3, it required a graphics card, and we got so much hate for that. People said we were going to ruin the industry. Nobody was going to spend $100 on a video card, and it was the dumbest thing that anyone ever did \u2026 I know for sure back in the day if it was available, John Carmack would be like making Skynet or something.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Still, to be fair to Willits, he seems to share my view that the game&#8217;ll have to prove that generative AI can change the industry itself, rather than via the promises of a CEO somewhere: &#8220;The games will speak for themselves, even in our experiment with Rideshare, I encourage people to check it out when it comes out, play it themselves. They may be like &#8216;oh, this is cool! I like this&#8217;. And if they don&#8217;t like it? Fine. And but the games speak for themselves.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"product\"><a data-dimension112=\"d7e144f2-a2e7-11f1-92e2-f96fdf8749a7\" data-action=\"Deal Block\" data-label=\"2026 games\" data-dimension48=\"2026 games\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure \" >\n<div class='image-full-width-wrapper'>\n<div class='image-widthsetter' style=\"max-width:661px;\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:98.94%;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"6offQUY4CXebir2TC27dMd\" name=\"kingdom come 2 square\" caption=\"\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/id-softwares-former-co-owner-says-they-absolutely-wouldve-used-gen-ai-back-in-the-day-john-carmack-would-be-like-making-skynet-or-something.jpg\" mos=\"\" align=\"middle\" fullscreen=\"\" width=\"661\" height=\"654\" attribution=\"\" endorsement=\"\" credit=\"\" class=\"\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/new-pc-games-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-dimension112=\"d7e144f2-a2e7-11f1-92e2-f96fdf8749a7\" data-action=\"Deal Block\" data-label=\"2026 games\" data-dimension48=\"2026 games\" data-dimension25=\"\"><strong>2026 games<\/strong><\/a>: All the upcoming games<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/the-best-pc-games\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Best PC games<\/strong><\/a>: Our all-time favorites<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/the-50-best-free-pc-games\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Free PC games<\/strong><\/a>: Freebie fest<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/best-fps-games\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Best FPS games<\/strong><\/a>: Finest gunplay<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/best-rpgs-of-all-time\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Best RPGs<\/strong><\/a>: Grand adventures<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/the-best-co-op-games\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Best co-op games<\/strong><\/a>: Better together<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/gaming-industry\/game-development\/id-softwares-former-co-owner-says-they-absolutely-wouldve-used-gen-ai-back-in-the-day-john-carmack-would-be-like-making-skynet-or-something\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Generative AI is a hot-button topic in the industry, and for good reason\u2014it&#8217;s been kinda destructive, whether that&#8217;s jacking up hardware prices or putting people out of a job\u2014and while there have been some fairly mundane use cases that seem helpful, it&#8217;s been hard to escape the sheer sense of mania that&#8217;s built around its use. Or the bad PR, juiced out of the sheer exhaustion we&#8217;ve all had from executives promising the matrix or something. So, naturally, it came up in a conversation with Tim Willits, the CCO of Saber Interactive and also the co-owner id Software from 1995-2019. Speaking to PC Gamer&#8217;s Joshua Wolens at Gamescom 2026, he notes that: &#8220;As most people know, we are experimenting with AI in future games. We&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerpt-more\"><a class=\"blog-excerpt button\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/id-softwares-former-co-owner-says-they-absolutely-wouldve-used-gen-ai-back-in-the-day-john-carmack-would-be-like-making-skynet-or-something\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1677249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[336],"tags":[4145,5491],"class_list":["post-1677248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pc-gamer","tag-game-development","tag-gaming-industry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>id Software&#039;s former co-owner says they absolutely would&#039;ve used gen AI back in the day: &#039;John Carmack would be like making Skynet or something&#039; | Arcader 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