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Quoting Tarn Adams

Simon Willison · Sep 01, 2026 · Industry Trends

Generative AI hype has forced game developers to abandon the term 'AI' entirely.

“They took the letters from me! I have to talk about dwarf behavior now. I can't even talk about dwarf AI. It doesn't exist. It's dwarf behavior, and they misbehave sometimes”

Dwarf Fortress co-creator Tarn Adams describes how the term 'AI' has been so thoroughly co-opted by the generative AI industry that game developers can no longer use it for traditional game NPC logic. This semantic capture is a cultural signal of how generative AI has reshaped language across adjacent fields. It illustrates growing friction between classical AI/CS terminology and the marketing-driven redefinition of 'AI.'

ai-terminology game-industry semantic-shift generative-ai-hype

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