- Asha Sharma, the freshly-appointed Xbox CEO, spoke on the use of AI in her first statement as the publisher's leader.
- She stated that the Xbox ecosystem will not be flooded by "soulless AI slop," as games will always be "crafted by humans."
- In a separate interview, Sharma stated that she has "no tolerance for bad AI."
Phil Spencer’s retirement has ushered in a new era for Xbox, one that’s being helmed by newly minted Xbox CEO Asha Sharma. Formerly President of Microsoft CoreAI, Sharma brings deep experience building and growing platforms, garnered over her leadership experiences at Instacart and Meta, to name a few.
Despite having no gaming experience, at least in a managerial role, Sharma’s initial comments as Xbox chief are rather promising. Most notably, she issued assurances surrounding the use of AI, stating that the Xbox ecosystem will not be flooded by “soulless slop” amid Microsoft’s internal push for the adoption of Copilot across all business divisions.
“Games Will Always Be Art, Crafted by Humans,” Says New Xbox Chief Asha Sharma
Xbox has had a patchy track record with the use of AI in games as of late. The most notable example of this is the backlash surrounding AI-generated assets in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. As adoption of these tools continues to mushroom in the games industry, players have naturally been worried about a potential erosion of human creativity – especially at an AI-led company like Microsoft.
In her first statement as Xbox CEO, Sharma made a point of assuaging these concerns, stating, “As monetization and AI evolve and influence this future, we will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop. Games are and always will be art, crafted by humans, and created with the most innovative technology provided by us.”
In a separate interview with Variety, Sharma mentioned that “AI has long been part of gaming and will continue to be,” but at the same time, she has “no tolerance for bad AI.” These comments can be perceived as a defiant stance from the freshly crowned chief of Xbox, especially at a company sarcastically labelled “Microslop” due to its insistence on AI.
Of course, this could all end up being some gentle PR speak if further evidence of AI-generated content is discovered in Xbox’s first-party releases. Until then, we can only hope that Sharma’s comments indicate a human-first direction for the video game publisher.
What are your thoughts on the managerial shakeup at Xbox? Let us know in the comments below.
