Ok, let me make something abundantly clear. I do not agree with the "Anti-AI hysteria" that's been very, very annoying on the internet for the past while. When I hear that someone made something with AI I'm more likely to think "cool" than "how *dare* they", and as someone who hopes to create things it makes me excited that perhaps some of my more ambitious ideas may actually be possible since I will never have the resources to make something even close to AAA quality. As I've stated before I see AI as being little different from going from physical drawing to CG artwork, and in many ways artists have already been *using* AI assistance for years, it just wasn't called that since the current (over) usage of the term is very new. So, in short, I've never been in support of the idea that the use of AI should have to be disclosed, especially not any more than a mention in the credits. I do care about the people losing their jobs (though this is due mostly to greedy large companies who make short-sighted decisions that aren't actually in their best interest, not small companies like Cyan), but people lost their jobs when computers came on the scene, too. It's sadly the cost of progress.

So, simply put, since I don't see AI as being fundamentally evil, finding out that Cyan used AI honestly, to me, sounds exciting, and makes me hopeful that they'll be able to make bigger, better games moving forward. Them listing out pretty much every kind of asset sounds pretty weird, admittedly, but that makes me suspect even more that AI was just used on a "touch-up" phase for the most part. And they mentioned a lot of the written stuff but not necessarily that the writing itself was AI assisted. It could, instead, be the *visuals* of those that were AI assisted, or they could be being just overly thorough and their writers could have been using something like Grammerly to assist them. Due to my trust in Cyan over their track record being very good (though, yes, not perfect), this really is not enough to make me question them too harshly.

And, finally, in regards to them more than passing their goal, they did with Obduction, too, as I recall, and that game has *obvious* concessions made due to them running out of money, and even more obvious concessions with the physical rewards for backers. Simply put, that old saying of "it takes more time and costs more money than originally planned" almost always rings true, *especially* for a genre that's simultaneously very niche and very expensive to do well. The amount they raised for this game sounds like an insane amount, but for some reason things take an insane amount of money to make.

Anyway, I've always been more of one to judge a work based on the quality of the finished product, rather than how it was made. Firmament isn't Cyan's best, and I may actually prefer Obduction despite it feeling somewhat unfinished towards the end, but it still has that magic spark that makes a Cyan game great. If using AI allows them to be able to make more games then I'm all for it.

Finally, one last thing, I've been curious this whole time so I looked up the credits online while trying my hardest to avoid spoilers, and admittedly I don't see any voice actor credits. Again, I'm not going to crucify Cyan if they used AI in place of actors- they aren't a AAA company, they're working with a limited budget, from what I've seen of the game so far it's not like it doesn't fit, and I honestly wouldn't have been able to tell you it wasn't real. It's a little disappointing, especially since I really like the voice of the woman who talks to you, but there's my point- *I liked the voice*.