New Xbox CEO Asha Sharma: No AI Forced on Devs, Committed to Human Art in Games

Asha Sharma’s promotion to Xbox CEO came with skepticism about the future of Xbox due to her tenure with Microsoft’s CoreAI org, whose mission is to integrate AI features. Speaking with Jez Cordon of Windows Central, Sharm explained her mission with Xbox and what her plans are for AI within the team.

"I think that with any new technology, it brings possibilities as a tool, but even more important, especially now — we need to draw lines on what we won't do. I will not flood our ecosystem with slop. We won't have careless output, we won't have derivative work. I deeply believe in the words that I shared previously there."

Matt Booty, the newly appointed Chief Content Operator, was also part of the interview, and he reassured that there has not been a directive from Microsoft to force an AI directive on Xbox and developers can continue to use whatever tools they want.

"We've got no pressure from Microsoft, there are no directives on AI coming down. Our teams are free to use any technologies that might be beneficial, whether it's helping write code or check for bugs — things more in the production pipeline. At the end of the day as Asha said, we're committed to art made by people. Technology is only in support of that."

Booty went on to compare AI to back when Photoshop was first showing up in gaming studios, noting that Xbox’s goal is for AI to be additive and supportive not disruptive.

"Just as a group, game developers are always eager to adopt new technology. When Photoshop showed up, it took about one month for it to appear in every game studio on the planet because it was so useful."

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