1989: A Game Designer Predicted AI Rip-Offs
Games at the press of a button: The Rip-O-Bot (1989)
In 1989, Bubble Bobble designer Fukio Mitsuji (MTJ) wrote a column for Japanese arcade magazine GAMEST warning that a machine—the "Rip-O-Bot"—could soon generate copycat games at the press of a button. He saw the industry's imitation mindset as a dead end, arguing that the only lasting weapon is original ideas. Decades later, his satire reads as prophecy, and his question—what's left for human designers?—is more urgent than ever.
Robots can do imitation too!—don’t you agree? Let’s put our heads and our hearts into the sort of original work that only humans can do.