Japanese gaming giant Nintendo has denied lobbying its native country’s government over generative AI, although the company does say that it intends to continue taking action against anything it perceives as intellectual property infringement.
In a message on social media, Nintendo says that it “has not had any contact with the Japanese government” regarding generative AI, “contrary to recent discussions on the internet”. The studio closes by saying it will “continue to take necessary actions” against IP infringement, “whether generative AI is involved or not”.
The message was seemingly posted in response to a post (thanks, Nintendo Everything) by Japanese House of Representatives politician Satoshi Asano, who said that Nintendo “avoids using generative AI to protect its IP” and that the company was “engaging in lobbying activities with the government”.
Asano himself apologized for the inaccuracy of his original statement and the misleading information contained within, posting a lengthy explanation and apology on his X account. He’s also deleted the original post in order to “prevent further dissemination of inaccurate information” (according to machine translation).
If Nintendo was lobbying the Japanese government over generative AI, though, it likely wouldn’t come as much of a surprise, given the company’s past statements about the controversial technology.
Back in July last year, Nintendo said it had no plans to utilize generative AI during any of its development processes, with president Shuntaro Furukawa pointing to “issues with intellectual property rights” and the responsibility of Nintendo to “deliver value” as sticking points.
The legendary gaming company is famously hawkish when it comes to pursuing legal action over its intellectual property. It’s currently suing Pocketpair, the creator of survival game Palworld, for patent infringement, and it’s been aggressive on the legal field in this regard before, too.
Nintendo’s stance on generative AI puts it at odds with many of its peers, including the likes of PUBG studio Krafton, streaming giant Netflix, and fellow gaming titans Xbox and EA, among others.
However, Nintendo isn’t the only gaming luminary to express doubts about generative AI; others, like BioShock‘s Ken Levine, have also evinced skeptical positions on the tech, so Nintendo is far from alone in being cautious.
