Valve has made changes to its AI-disclosure guidelines, removing the need for studios to disclose whether or not games have been developed with AI-powered tools and putting more emphasis on AI-generated assets.
The change, which was pointed out by Simon Carless on LinkedIn, suggests that Valve is no longer concerned by the use of AI tools that assist development, stating, “Efficiency gains through the use of [AI-powered dev tools] is not the focus of this section.” These tools could included a variety of things, such as AI-generated transcripts of meetings to code helpers that have become prevalent in most programming environments.
Valve states the the aim of its disclosure policy is to inform players when AI is used to generate content, from marketing and conceptual assets to in-game ones that players will interact with. Developers are able to specify what assets have been generated and indicate, via a single checkbox, whether or not players will interact with AI-generated content during gameplay, be it images, audio, or other content.
This is the first time Valve has made a significant change to the AI disclosure rules since its introduction in 2024, when generative AI use in game development began rising. While there are thousands of games on Steam that disclose the use of AI, the policy is still voluntary and not enforce by moderation on Valve’s end, meaning many developers might omit the disclosure on their store pages. The policy itself contradicts other rival storefronts such as the Epic Games Store, with Epic CEO Tim Sweeny recently stating that such disclosures “make no sense” for storefronts.
The use of AI continues to be a talking point off the back of 2025. The use of AI-generated audio in Arc Raiders was widely discussed in the wake of its critical and commercial success, while Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian Studios came under fire after its CEO suggested that the studio will make use of generative AI in several conceptual phases for its next game, Divinity. Larian later clarified this statement to assure players this would no longer be the case, but that the studio will continue exploring these options in the future.
