The AI boom is "certainly not a fad," Elder Scrolls and Fallout boss Todd Howard says, but Bethesda is "being incredibly cautious" and isn't using it to "generate anything"
18.2k
George Young
2026-02-19
Bethesda big boy Todd Howard doesn't think the AI boom is a "fad" and, as such, the studio is "not fully ignoring it." However, he says that the team is "not using it to generate anything," and that he values "handcrafted human intention."
He goes on to explain how Bethesda is using it, and tracking its advancements for data-led tasks. "[We're] viewing it as a tool, like an analyst [to] look at the data in our games," he explains. "We can't ignore it, in terms of it's coming, it's changing. Every few months there's a new model, particularly on the tech side with code or productivity or other things.
Elder Scrolls and Fallout boss Todd Howard says AI is a useful "tool" in game dev, but "not in generating things" because "the human intention of it is what makes our stuff special"
Todd Howard says Elder Scrolls 6 is a return to "classic" Bethesda style "that we've missed, that we know really well"
Bethesda's Todd Howard says "we are doing other things with Fallout that we haven’t announced"
"And I would just say we're looking at that stuff," he continues. "We're not fully ignoring it, because where it can help us get better at some big data tasks that just take us a lot of time, that we wish were done now so we can move onto the creative stuff."
However, he emphasizes that the team isn't using it for the creative side of game development, and doesn't intend to. "We're not using it to generate anything," he says. "I think there's such an element of artistic intention that is essential to what we do and others do. And if you look across [at] things outside of AI [...] go back a hundred years [to] this idea of craftsmen, I still think craftsmen, and that handcrafted human intention, is what makes things special, and that's where we want to be."
He ends his answer explaining that it is still "very, very early days" but it seems that that studio is monitoring AI's progress in the future.
Todd Howard says Elder Scrolls 6 is a return to "classic" Bethesda RPGs like Skyrim, Oblivion, and Fallout 4 after the "creative detour" the studio took with Fallout 76 and Starfield: "We do have a certain style that we like"
tryharder
Feb 19, 06:02 PM
👀 cold It's an okay game. To me...
mycatsbetter
Feb 19, 05:12 PM
burning I danced it. kind of -wtf Unusually slow.
rat_queen
Feb 19, 04:22 PM
congrats stuff like that
meta_meta
Feb 19, 03:22 PM
ain’t no way nah i hid it, welcome
Recent Articles