The Alters Localization by AI Confirms Producer

11 Bit Studios has found itself in a bit of a stir because of their game, The Alters. It turns out they used artificial intelligence for parts of the game’s production and also for translating it into languages like Brazilian Portuguese, but they didn’t tell anyone publicly. Things got even worse when players found phrases from AI-generated text right in the game, some of them sounding totally out of place. The Steam page for the game doesn’t say anything about using AI in its creation, but players quickly noticed phrases that sounded just like talking to an AI program. One odd phrase they spotted was “Clearly The translated text into Brazilian Portuguese is:”, which popped up in the middle of a cutscene dialogue. These discoveries really bugged some players, especially since The Alters didn’t mention any AI usage in its making, and the studio’s public response just made people even angrier instead of cooling things off. 11 Bit Studios eventually said they saw all the accusations about using AI-generated content in The Alters and felt it was important to explain their approach and give more context. They claimed that any AI-generated stuff was temporary and they only used it very sparingly. They explained that a piece of graphic text made by AI was temporarily used by one of their graphic designers as a stand-in, and it was never meant for the final game. Unfortunately, because of a mix-up inside the company, this temporary text accidentally stayed in the game

The Alters developer, 11 Bit Studios, has now promised an update to swap out the AI-made content in specific cutscenes that were added super late in the game’s development. They revealed that some text, like the “Captain’s Log,” was just a temporary placeholder that somehow slipped through and ended up in the final release. They also mentioned that generative AI translations were only used for a few cutscenes that got added very late and needed last-minute language fixes. As for the translation issues, the producer said these are limited to a few licensed films you can watch in the game’s social area. This work was done by outside folks, without the team’s direct involvement, and only dropped in right at the end of production. Since they were created so close to the release date, they needed last-minute translations. The team couldn’t hire their usual localization partners because they were on a super tight deadline, so they used AI to translate these videos to make the release date. Now, they’re working with partners on more precise translations and hope to update the game soon, because the other option was to release The Alters without those localizations at all.