Just a day after Epic Games revealed it would build a big new game with Disney using only AI-written code and incorporating AI workflows into its art, Xbox has announced its own AI-based plans. Though smartly, perhaps, not putting the word “AI” in its entire 500-word statement even once.

A new announcement from Xbox CEO Asha Sharma says that she will create Xbox Labs, “a small group of game makers, engineers and scientists whose job is to turn emerging ideas into things our players and developers can experience.”

Sharma references recent developments in the industry where AI has allowed gamers to decompile games, the result of which ranges from putting them on platforms where they were never meant to run, or remixing entire games like putting Mario in Elden Ring , Spider-Man in Arkham or, a few hours after this blog was released, Spartans in Gears of War: E-Day . It really is stunning just how fast this accelerated into a type of modding we simply have never seen before.

A goal here, she says, is “giving old games new life and allowing more players to become creators and co-creators. These are unmistakably good outcomes for players, even when (and sometimes because) they challenge our existing business models.”

It is a deft bit of PR to talk about all of these AI-driven ideas without mentioning AI at all. Previously, Sharma, who was previously VP and Head of Product for Microsoft’s AI platform, arrived and cancelled planned moves like CoPilot integration into Xbox. Sharma said in her earliest messages that there was no place for “soulless AI slop” on the Xbox platform. Though of course, what constitutes “AI slop” and not “good AI” according to an AI-based tech VP is an open question.

I do not take this statement as Microsoft announcing some slew of AI-generated games, albeit making players “co-creators,” does require some clarification. Rather, this seems like Xbox trying to be forward-thinking with the changing market and inevitabilities like AI worming its way into every aspect of game development. The main change here is the messaging. I have to wonder if Xbox saw the reception to Tim Sweeney’s AI-gloating statement the day before and understood they could in no way echo that. So, you talk about AI plans by saying this tech results in “new ways to discover and experience games.” I think we are going to see more of this as many in tech realize that AI is rapidly becoming a branding problem. And no, changing it to “SI” sure doesn’t solve anything.

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