Kickstarter says new projects will have to disclose whether they use AI

Kickstarter has announced a new policy regarding projects that make use of AI in some way, including video games.

According to a statement on the official Kickstarter website, from August 29 the company will require creators to disclose whether their projects will use AI.

If a project doesn’t properly disclose the use of AI when it’s being submitted to Kickstarter it could be suspended.

The company also says that anyone trying to avoid its guidelines or “intentionally misrepresent a project” will be restricted from submitting new Kickstarter projects in the future.

In order to be allowed to appear on Kickstarter, the project “must disclose relevant details on their project page”, including “how the creator plans to use AI content in their project, as well as which elements of their project will be wholly original work and which elements will be created using AI outputs”.

If the project itself is a new AI tool, AI tech or AI software, the project “must disclose information about any databases and data the creator intends to use”, and must “indicate how these sources handle consent and credit for the data they utilise”.

“To be clear, our new policy does not ban the use of AI in Kickstarter projects,” the company explains.

“However, we want to make sure that any project that is funded through Kickstarter includes human creative input and properly credits and obtains permission for any artist’s work that it references.

“The policy requires creators to be transparent and specific about how they use AI in their projects because when we’re all on the same page about what a project entails, it builds trust and sets the project up for success.”

Kickstarter’s policy announcement comes a month after Valve attempted to clarify its own stance on AI, after it reportedly banned a Steam project that used AI-generated artwork.

In late June a developer claimed that their game, which featured AI-generated assets allegedly as early templates, was rejected by Valve after it demanded they prove they owned all the necessary rights used in the data set that trained the AI to create them.

Responding to the incident, Valve issued a statement to VGC claiming that its “goal is not to discourage the use of [games built with AI] on Steam”, and that any action it had taken was “a reflection of current copyright law and policies, not an added layer of our opinion.”

“We are continuing to learn about AI, the ways it can be used in game development, and how to factor it in to our process for reviewing games submitted for distribution on Steam,” it wrote. “Our priority, as always, is to try to ship as many of the titles we receive as we can.

“The introduction of AI can sometimes make it harder to show a developer has sufficient rights in using AI to create assets, including images, text, and music.”