'Warhammer' Veteran Jervis Johnson Warns AI Might Turn out to be the 'Asbestos of the Web' – Decrypt

Synthetic intelligence may turn out to be “the asbestos of the web,” based on one of many architects of Warhammer 40,000.

Jervis Johnson, the longtime designer behind Warhammer 40,000, Necromunda, and Blood Bowl, criticized generative AI whereas supporting Video games Workshop’s formal ban on the know-how in its inventive course of.

“Many of the stuff that I’ve seen doesn’t appear to really fairly match as much as the hype,” Johnson instructed gaming outlet FRVR. “I noticed an important quote not too long ago saying that AI goes to be just like the asbestos of the web and the pc business. That we’re going to be spending a long time getting these things out once more after we’ve used it loads and came upon it is truly a bit garbage.”

Video games Workshop, based in 1975 and listed on the London Inventory Alternate since 1994, is among the largest tabletop gaming corporations globally. In January, the maker of Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer: Age of Sigmar reported about $422 million in income and roughly $178 million in working revenue for the 26 weeks ended Nov. 30, 2025.

In its half-yearly report launched in January, Video games Workshop CEO Kevin Rountree mentioned the corporate doesn’t permit AI-generated content material or AI for use in its design processes, or its unauthorized use outdoors of GW, together with in any of its competitions.

“We now have agreed an inner coverage to information us all, which is presently very cautious, e.g., we don’t permit AI-generated content material or AI for use in our design processes or its unauthorized use outdoors of GW, together with in any of our competitions,” Rountree mentioned throughout an investor name.

Johnson mentioned he helps that coverage.

“I feel it’s the precise transfer for lots of corporations, to be completely trustworthy,” he mentioned. “I haven’t had a whole lot of expertise with AI as a result of I don’t use it. It’s not the way in which that I work, and I’m previous so I don’t need to. It’s a newfangled sort of factor that I didn’t actually get entangled with within the first place.”

He mentioned generative AI doesn’t ship high-end inventive work, and in the long run could also be extra dangerous to builders than useful.

“I feel that should you’re going to do stuff on the prime finish, do correctly attention-grabbing, inventive stuff, then AI doesn’t make it easier to,” Johnson mentioned. “It’s a hindrance principally as a result of it permits you to be a bit lazy and never put within the effort.”

Johnson described the event of Warhammer 40,000 as a course of constructed on sustained human effort.

“There was a whole lot of work concerned there, a whole lot of pondering, and thought, and conferences, and planning, and discarding concepts,” he mentioned. “I fear that, with AI, what it does is it simply cuts that out and shortcuts to sort of a mean reply.”