As big companies try to get away with handing people AI-generated slop, folks have become extra vigilant about generative AI, to the point where even seeing mention of AI in any capacity can cause one to assume the worst. As such, The Pokémon Company has come under fire for an announcement that didn’t mean what some people think it meant.
Pokémon has announced that it’s holding a contest for fans to write AI code that plays through Trading Card Game simulations, similar to ones used for chess, Shogi, and poker through Google’s Kaggle service. The contest will include a cash prize for whichever team’s AI wins a tournament later this year. The challenge of writing an AI that can play Pokémon is that, unlike in games such as chess, the game has an element of randomness based on what the player draws, as well as more complex card relationships based on status effects, elemental affinities, and just a general lack of predictability compared to other games the tech has been used for.
You can get the full rundown of the contest on the official website, but the TLDR version of it is that coders are going to be making AI play Pokémon cards, and pitting them against one another. However, whether it be the result of shoddy social media translations or people just reading the phrases “AI” and “Pokémon cards” together, some folks are having kneejerk reactions in both fan spaces and underneath official Pokémon posts about the contest. But y’all can put your knives away, for now.
There has been some criticism that this appears to be a way to crowdsource labor in designing a Pokémon-playing AI so The Pokémon Company doesn’t have to pay engineers, but according to the competition’s rules, entrants will retain rights to the code, but not any of the actual Pokémon elements.
All copyrights, patent rights, trademark rights, design rights, trade secrets, and all other intellectual property rights (including the rights set forth in Articles 27 and 28 of the Copyright Act of Japan; collectively, the “Intellectual Property Rights”) relating to the Submissions and all works produced in connection with this Competition (including developed models, code (including, but not limited to Competition Code as defined below), tools, and derivatives; collectively, the “Works”) shall be retained by you. However, in addition to the rights expressly stated in these Rules, you grant Pokémon, Kaggle and any third party designated by Pokémon a free, non‑exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide license to use (including reproduction, adaptation, public transmission, distribution, translation, and all other forms of use) the Submissions solely for purposes relating to the operation (including announcing the winners) of the Competition.
So if you were worried this was somehow a way for Pokémon to start making AI trading cards, worry not. Well, maybe worry a little bit about The Pokémon Company’s stance on AI, but not about this thing specifically. In general, TPC’s position on generative AI has been inconsistent. The company disqualified a fan from a competition for submitting alleged AI-generated art, but has also been accused of using it in some of its promotional materials.
