Klang, the creator of an ambitious new online game world, said it will use an ethical approach to AI use in building society simulator Seed.
Klang said there is no avoiding the topic of AI, which is at the forefront of our collective minds, and for
good reason. Sometimes the topic can be exhilarating. Other times it can feel extremely daunting. Plus, the use of AI isn’t black and white, which can lead to confusion and speculation.
That is why the company decided to take a moment to explain how Klang is using and plans to use AI in
the creation of its game, Seed, which will be a society simulator, or a massive living world, in which
players are the architects.
In the game, players are in charge of caring for human inhabitants, “Seedlings,” who are set with the task of establishing a new home for humanity on the exoplanet Avesta. On Avesta, players guide their Seedlings through a fully simulated world.
The game is more on the simulation side. You can still control your character in terms of whether to go to a certain location. But it is more like The Sims than anything else, and it is heavily inspired by Eve Online.
“We basically set out to make the emergent player-built societies that we saw in Eve Online and try to make that more accessible. Most MMOs tend to be very hardcore and time consuming,” said Mundi Vondi, CEO of Klang, in an interview with GamesBeat. “How do we bring more players into the same game, a single shard MMO?”
From small social encounters to planet-wide policies and programs, the world of Seed is deep and limitless — and full of life. This vast world that Klang is creating is supported, in part, by generative AI.
The volume of data generated by the massive scale of Seed’s simulation creates the perfect conditions for
generative AI to add rich believable color and variety to the world. Klang CTO Oddur Magnusson said, “Seed’s core simulation is the cake, generative AI is the icing.”
But as Klang integrate AI into its creative processes, the company is conscious of the broader implications. This is why it established the Klang AI Guidelines, ensuring that its use of AI not only enhances our games
but also aligns with our ethical standards. Let’s take a look at some of its core principles: AI as a Catalyst, Not a Replacement.
One of the core tenets at Klang Games is that AI serves as a catalyst for human creativity and efficiency. It’s a tool that assists Klangers, enabling them to achieve more and push the boundaries of their creativity. The idea isn’t to replace human work but to expand it, ensuring that our team can focus on what they do best—creating an ambitious game simulating humanity.
Klang said it can assure you that Al never and has never taken a Klanger’s job. There are about 100 employees.
Life simulation game
One question is what would the million-player playground look like? What kind of gameplay would suit that?
They approached it as a life simulation, kind of like The Sims, but where large societies could form. That is what they have working in part today in the game dubbed Seed. It consists of families created by players who live out their lives with families from other players. It’s a constantly changing and dynamic environment. Each human is driven by social needs, tiredness, hunger and more, Vondi said.
Oddur Magnusson, CTO of Klang, said Seed is a shared virtual world with characters living out their lives 24/7, whether there is a human player there to control them or not. It uses standard game AI technology to create a kind of life simulator.
“We have these characters,” Magnusson said. “They exist in the game and they have desires and they have needs and they have jobs and they’re going through the day and they have relationships and everything that you would have in a life. That is like the perfect context to make come alive using GenAI. Because these characters are relatable characters that you care for in the game. And instead of us just, showing you their stats, or maybe an event log of what they did through throughout the day, we can actually feed that into the data in the labs and really make it come alive. So it almost adds a whole new dimension, like something going from 2D to 3D, where the characters really become animated from it.”
He added, “A lot of people and companies and parties are looking for ways of deploying AI into games, specifically because it has so much potential. But trying to do it and finding the right fit is hard. If you have a linear game, how are you going to fit it into that?”
He said you can make your characters converge, but they still have to always be bringing you back to the plotline. With such storylines, Klang is always trying to experiment with the combination of AI and a directed story.
The idea for GenAI is to make game AI come alive. As an anecdote, they talked about a process for prototype that was developed in a hackathon. The game idea involved a character who was a workaholic and antisocial. The character entered some thoughts into a journal, where the character talked about how they hated going on dates, how relationships were useless, and how working was more interesting. The AI helped flesh this character out to be more relatable, rather than just two dimensional. The designers could build out the character’s memories with AI.
“This really unlocked the potential to do this at scale,” Magnusson said.
Generative AI is a tool to augment what the company has already been building.
Klang’s commitment to ethical AI use
Magnusson said that in the current environment where everyone feels the pressure to adopt AI, it’s important to recognize there are legal and ethical liabilities that arise from moving too fast into the space. He said that teams have to be on top of problems like toxicity, which AI can recognize in multiplayer games and immediately flag it for possible bans or other penalties for problem players.
“We have to be build in monitoring tools and be really careful with guardrails in place,” Magnusson said.
AI is a new frontier. This means that there is no handbook on how to best use it.
That being said, at Klang, the team is committed to using AI in an ethical way. Here’s what this means for Klang:
The first notion is that companies should know their models. Klang said it is very thoughtful about the AI models it uses. This means that it does its best to use LLMs (Large Language Models) that are ethically trained. Additionally, Kland will keep a close eye on the evolving legal landscape around data use.
Second, the company said it will verify inputs and outputs.
Klang’s commitment also extends to the content generated by these models. The team strives to avoid
generating LLM content that violates our in-game standards. On top of that, Klang will make it easy for players to report any content generated by LLMs that they believe should be reviewed. This will help us calibrate our models (making them even better), while also fostering a game environment that respects player feedback and actively mitigates biases and toxicity.
Third, the company said it should be clear and transparent.
Klang said it firmly believes that transparency is key to building a trusting relationship. Because of this,
the company will do its best to be clear with its players about which parts of Seed are AI-generated.
Fourth, the company said it should respect the user.
Player input is invaluable, but respect for player privacy is paramount. Klang said it pledges not to use
player data to train its models without explicit consent, honoring the trust players place in Klang and the virtual worlds it creates.
Identifying AI
YouTube has a consideration where, if a model looks realistic, and it’s AI-generated, you have to flag it to users as made by AI, Magnussen said.
“We are not the only ones who are putting out these principles, but I think we should all be talking about it,” he said. “I wish we had been more critical of the adoption of social networks 15 years ago.”
Magnusson said it may be relevant to tell a user if something in a game was human-generated or AI generated. Asked if AI characters have rights about things like how you treat them, Magnusson said, “That’s a great philosophical question. Right now, I don’t think they do.”
When it comes to things like self-harm for AI characters, that’s a red flag for a company to decide whether that should something that can happen in a game or not. If children are playing the game, then this is a relevant thing to disclose to the player or the parents.
There should be some way for players to self-regulate or report others when they are concerned about the use of AI in a game.
Seed has grown into a small city, with hundreds of users taking part in playtests so far. Players can build multiple houses and they’re sharing the kind of drama that is happening in the game with their characters.
“We’re seeing those types of really deep player-driven narratives start to emerge. And it’s just really exciting,” Vondi said.
The users of AI models have to be aware of what is going into the models and make sure that there isn’t any copyrighted material being added to the models in an unauthorized way. The content sources should be identified clearly.
How will users react to this content? Maybe the users don’t want that because it goes against some ethical stance that they have, then we have to be respectful of that,” he said. “Allowing them to opt in or opt out of that should be clear. We have to respect the user and respect the user’s privacy.”
Looking ahead
Klang started working with Improbable to build its massive world, but it will not launch on Improbable. Instead, it will use its own technology since Improbable pivoted into another business.
As Klang forges ahead, integrating AI into Seed, these guidelines will continue to evolve and grow as Klang itself continues to do. Throughout this process, they will serve, not just as rules, but as a reflection of Klang’s commitment to innovation, ethics, and respect for our community. We are excited to be at the
forefront of this exploration of the intersection between AI integration and game development and are eager to explore how AI will continue to deepen the vibrant world of Seed.
Right now, there isn’t as much user-generated content available for transactions yet in Seed, and it remains to be seen whether that is going to happen in the future. Players can design houses and furniture, hire employees, and set the price on products they produce.