Valve admits Steam has an AI slop and cloning problem, but says 'we don't want to be gatekeepers telling developers which tools they should or shouldn't use'

The rise of AI slop is a real problem for Steam. Developers are growing wary of sharing their concepts and demos for fear of them being cloned, while Next Fest events meant to showcase upcoming games are being choked by literally thousands of demos hastily cranked out by 'developers' who are throwing everything imaginable at the wall in hopes that something will stick.

Speaking at the Steam Indie Connect event in Busan, South Korea, Valve's Tom Giardino and Marc Wilkinson acknowledged the problem, which as reported by Inven Global included at least one instance of a developer reporting extortion threats: "If you don't pay, we'll clone your game with AI and release it first." But the pair suggested that Valve isn't really in a position to do much about it, at least as far as regulating what is and isn't allowed on the platform. …