Manufacturing consent in Hasbro’s toy factory
You are not immune to propaganda, but you can watch it happen in real time.
At this point, I’ve dedicated thousands of words across several articles discussing the future of AI technology within Hasbro and its tabletop subsidiary, Wizards of the Coast. So, it came as no surprise that the toy company’s CEO, Chris Cocks, didn’t just speak favorably about the future of AI within games such as Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering during Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia & Technology Conference—he confidently claimed they were already using it.
This is not a gotcha moment, to be clear. Plenty of reporting and Cock’s own quotes detail Hasbro’s use of “mostly machine learning-based AI or proprietary AI as opposed to a ChatGPT approach,” as he told a Goldman Sachs representative moderating the interview. Like Google, Apple, IBM, Amazon, and countless other massive corporations, Hasbro has developed and implemented less doom-inducing versions of AI technology only because they don’t immediately threaten the livelihoods of artists and creatives. Unlike the aforementioned companies, the toy giant is engaging in some history redrafting and wool-pulling instead of shoving the maligned tech down our collective throats.
