Steam Updated Its AI Disclosure for Gamers

Valve just quietly answered one of the messiest questions in AI disclosure: does it count if players never see it? Their answer is no — and it's a more thoughtful position than most of the industry has managed.

Steam updated its AI disclosure form this month to clarify that developers must flag generative AI content only when it "ships with your game, and is consumed by players." Back-end tools — coding assistants, efficiency software, anything used in production but not delivered to the end user — don't require disclosure. The tweak is small. The principle it establishes is not.

Why This Distinction Is Actually Hard

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney recently argued that AI disclosure labels should be scrapped entirely, because "AI will be involved in nearly all future production" anyway. It's a convenient position for companies that want to use AI without accountability, dressed up as pragmatism. The counter-argument isn't that AI tools should be hidden. It's that consumers deserve to know what they're buying.

The harder question, which Valve is now implicitly answering, is where the line sits. Does it count if you used Photoshop's generative fill on a concept sketch that never shipped? If a developer used Claude to write fifty lines of code that ended up in the final build? If marketing used ChatGPT to draft the store description?

Valve's answer: the disclosure question is about the player's experience, not the production pipeline. If AI-generated content that you're asking someone to pay for and engage with — art, writing, audio, environments — disclose it. If AI helped you build it more efficiently, that's between you and your workflow.

That's a defensible principle. It's also the kind of clarity that most industries, including marketing, desperately lack.

The Two Categories Worth Understanding

Steam's form breaks AI usage into two buckets. Pre-generated content covers any in-game assets created with AI tools before launch — art, dialogue, environments. These are subject to the same rules as non-AI content, meaning the quality and legality burden sits with the developer. Live-generated content covers anything an AI system creates while the game is actively running — think procedural dialogue, dynamic environments, AI NPCs responding in real time. Developers using live generation must also explain what guardrails are in place to prevent illegal outputs. Valve even added a button in the Steam overlay letting players report illegal content generated during live play. Given what we've seen fall out of unguarded generative systems recently, that's not paranoia. It's product liability management.

The Broader Signal for Every Industry

Over 50% of game developers now believe generative AI is bad for their industry — a dramatic reversal from just two years ago. That shift reflects something real: when AI-generated content is used to cut corners on creative work and passed off as equivalent to human craft, people notice. Trust erodes. The backlash isn't against AI tools per se. It's against opacity.

This dynamic extends well beyond gaming. Every industry that creates content — including marketing — is navigating the same tension right now. When does AI-assisted work require disclosure? When does it become something consumers or clients have a right to know about? There's no universal standard yet, but the logic Valve applied is a reasonable framework: if someone is consuming the output and making decisions based on it, they should know how it was made.

For brands building AI-assisted content strategies, this is worth proactively thinking through. Regulatory standards for AI disclosure in advertising, content marketing, and creative production are forming in real time. Companies that establish their own clear internal policies — distinguishing between AI as a production tool and AI as a delivery mechanism — will be ahead of the curve when those standards arrive. The ones treating disclosure as a compliance checkbox rather than a trust-building practice will be caught flat-footed.

The question isn't whether to use AI. It's whether you're willing to stand behind what you make with it.

Winsome Marketing helps brands build AI-forward content strategies with integrity — and stay ahead of where the rules are heading. Let's talk.