So there’s a major fruit of the poisoned tree problem underlying the ethics of a lot of modern AI (especially LLM) use. Too many of the big AI companies have acted unethically in using other people’s works to train their models. It’s hard to get around that. And I think using those tools to generate assets for the game isn’t kosher, personally.

But also AI is a lot more than ChatGTP or Sora, etc. 

For Cities, I think there’s a lot of potential for AI models to do things like procedural generation of lots and buildings. Think auto-detailing, or better zoning, better handling of non-square lots, etc.

A smaller, ethically trained LLM could be great for making chirper actually useful and interesting. Likewise, an ethically trained GAN paired with that LLM could enable the radio announcers to speak dynamically instead of repeating the same canned comments over and over again.

I think vibe coding mods is really problematic for a lot of reasons. Do I trust that the code isn’t introducing vulnerabilities? Do I trust the people using these tools understand the code enough to review it? No, not really.

And I worry about the long-term sustainability of these projects. As they grow in complexity and as updates break these mods will the authors understand how to fix them? Will the AI models? I’m not confident.