MiHaYou's founder, Cai Haoyu, who rarely appears in the public eye, made a rare and highly opinionated public statement on social media yesterday.

Cai Haoyu believes that AI has completely subverted game development, and that this phenomenon will unfold completely, it's just a matter of time. In the future, there are only two types of people who have logical significance in creating games:

One is the top 0.0001% of people, an elite team composed of the most insightful geniuses, who create something unprecedented.

The other is 99% of amateur enthusiasts who can freely create games just to satisfy their own ideas.

As for other ordinary to professional developers, he straightforwardly says, "Consider switching careers."

"Encouraging the big shots to discourage practitioners," joked someone who has been working in the game industry as an artist for over ten years. Cai Haoyu's remarks have also been dubbed "extremist speech" by some, sparking discussions in the game industry.

In the wave of generative AI, game developers are the most active "embracers". Whether it's reducing the cost and improving the efficiency of game production, or breaking through the limits of current game industrialization, game developers have no choice but to enter this AI battle. Some of them build their own AI models, while others invest in AI companies.

According to the latest "China Game Industry New Quality Productivity Development Report" released by Gamma Data, over 99% of respondents' companies or departments have introduced AI technology and tools, and nearly 60% of leading game developers have built AI production pipelines, empowered virtual content production, or intelligent marketing.

AI has significant cost reduction and efficiency improvement effects in various aspects such as game art and marketing. Especially in the field of art, this is a business where AI was first applied to game development pipelines. Many companies have already used AI-generated images in 3D animation textures, skeletons, and even scene construction.

As reported by practitioners in the game art industry, last year the company's art business was still in the stage of trial and exploration with AI, but this year it has been widely applied.

In addition to the cost reduction and efficiency improvement aspect, AI may also break through the existing boundaries of games and provide more core value.

In the view of Zhuang Minghao, Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer of Quwan Technology, there are two main paths for AI deployment in the industry at the current stage. One is "Existing Scene + AI", and the other path is "AI Native".

"Existing Scene + AI" means adding AI content within the scope of the company's existing business scenes. The most common scenes in game companies are art, copywriting, NPCs, UGC maps, as well as social player dialogue, player behavior analysis, recommendations, etc. Examples include Netease's UGC maps in "Egg Party" and Tencent's "King of Glory"'s "Juewu".

"From the perspective of game creators, NPCs, maps, and plots are essentially the content forms that need to be done in the early stages of game creation. It's just that now with the rise of AI, everyone is incorporating AI into them." Zhuang Minghao said.

"AI Native" is a method that emphasizes the use of artificial intelligence technology as a core component from the beginning of the product or service construction process. This approach is different from the traditional way of adding AI as an additional function or integrating it in the later stage.

Zhuang Minghao said that in this stage, game developers are thinking more about what native AI games should be like? Can AI be used to generate social relationships? Currently, many developers are trying the so-called LUI (Language User Interface), which is to interact through conversation and make AI the core gameplay of the game, or let AI generate, summarize, and organize the roles, players' behaviors, and user experiences in the game.

'Although these 'AI Native' games are far from our ideal and imagined, many companies have already taken action,' said Zhuang Minghao.

Breaking through the limitations of the current stage of gaming is also something that miHoYo, an industry oddity, wants to do.

In September last year, Cai Haoyu stepped down as the company's legal representative and chairman. At the time, the company responded that this was to adapt to the future development needs of the company. Cai Haoyu would invest more energy in the research and application of cutting-edge technology, new project development, and the connection of domestic and overseas research and development resources.

According to the positioning on social media, Cai Haoyu is currently in California, USA.