Microsoft and Epic Games Suddenly Agree That AI Is Theft
tom2026hn
69 points
33 comments
October 28, 2026
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Discussion Highlights (9 comments)
avaer
It's going to be really interesting to see how billion dollar game companies handle this. It could be a Napster/Torrent moment. Which would be a good thing.
epolanski
Remember when Microsoft was saying, in 2021-2022, that they were going to provide legal assistance to anybody contesting the license of Copilot-generated code?
dude250711
I have to begrudgingly support them, because that would decrease the amount of vibe-slop at least somewhat. That being said, Valve should increase their Steam fee to at least $1k now.
CookieCrisp
I think this is a bit disingenuous. The stance they’re taking seems consistent to me. I’m Interpreting their view as “Using AI to create something new isn’t theft, using it to recreate or access an existing product is copyright infringement” - makes sense to me
BatFastard
Sadly the low hanging fruit is cloning other peoples games. This takes away from all the indies that AI is empowering. I use AI on the game I am creating. It is wonderful in many ways. (I say this as I watch it burn thru 2m tokens with out informing me of the scope of what it was going to do).
alcomatt
I for one would love for someone create a clone of ms office with a good exchange implementation and decent outlook client plus self-hostable private cloud counterparts. Free Azure anyone?
oliwarner
Epic are gleefully slopping out a new client. Is that theft, Tim? Weird how this stuff only applies when it's not you doing it.
pipes
I gave up reading the article due to silly phrasing and editorialising: "punishment", "AI tools many publishers have brazenly admitted to using are a double-edged sword." And so on. The nonsense about "hypocrisy", companies act in the best interest of their shareholders. It isn't hypocrisy to use AI tooling and also attempt to protect their IP. Not wanting to be stabbed and using a knife to cut my steak dinner up doesn't make me a hypocrite.
tancop
I think all developers should release their games code as open source (GPL) and only keep the assets commercial. That lets everyone else learn and remix but doesn't hurt sales.