Valve Responds to Criticism of AI Slop at Steam Next Fest

Valve representatives Tom Giardino and Mark Wilkinson have responded to criticism of October's Steam Next Fest, where generative AI projects became noticeably more common among the demos. Speaking at Steam Indie Connect in Seoul, they explained that games are shown in a randomized order during the festival's first two days, with personalized recommendations appearing only afterward. Valve has no plans to ban AI-generated games.'We are fully aware of the situation, and a significant number of people are thinking about how to address it,' Wilkinson said. He pointed out that randomization is designed to give developers an equal chance and prevent people from gaming the system, while many articles about the festival being 'flooded with garbage' were based on its first two days. Giardino described the surge in demos as a pendulum swinging the other way. Three years ago, the festival had only 50 to 100 participants. Valve does not currently plan to change the format.Extortion was another topic at the event. Since late September, independent developers have reported receiving emails threatening to clone their unreleased games with AI and launch the copies first unless they paid around $200 in Steam items. Giardino advised them to report the threats to both Valve and law enforcement. That response fits into a debate that has dominated the week. Tim Sweeney recently called on Valve to relax its AI policy, while former Valve writer Chet Faliszek argued for the opposite and urged the company to clean things up.