Level-5 President Apologizes For AI Footage In Vision 2026 Presentation
Hino's answer separates AI as a marketing tool from AI as a production input, and ties the company's AI use to a stated plan to cut major title development from five years to two years.
Reporting from 2 sources: Automaton, Game Spark.
Akihiro Hino, president of Level-5, apologized on September 12 for AI-generated footage shown during the LEVEL5 VISION 2026 II Dream stream on September 10. Hino said he used the latest AI and experimental processing to make the presentation flashy. He said scenarios, character designs, and basic settings in released games are made by human hands, and that the games themselves do not contain easy AI-generated data.
Hino addressed the criticism in a post on X, saying he used a wide range of the latest AI and experimental processing because he wanted the presentation to be flashy, and apologized to users who felt uncomfortable.
He drew the line at the products. At Level-5, the parts tied to a game's appeal and individuality, such as scenarios, character designs, and basic settings, are made by human hands, he said. AI is aimed at processes that digitize human-created work, such as converting original art into polygons accurately. He also said the trial and error sits under a plan to shorten major title development from five years to two years, and that he wants to use the reaction as a lesson.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 2 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.