I think it comes down to (perceived) quality of implementation and how long each tool has been used.
Procedural level generation has been implemented to good effect in many games going back decades to Diablo (II?). Most gamers acknowledge that it can be done well, so it’s easier to defend from criticism whenever some asset flip survival crafting game botches it.
AI art and voice work is a lot less proven. Most of the time they lead to measurable drops in quality when implemented. Look at the criticism around Stasis: Bone Totem for an example of how distracting AI art is in the context of an otherwise competent game.
There’s also the perception that procedural generation is a valid artistic choice whereas AI is a pure cost cutting exercise. There are games like Dwarf Fortress, No Man’s Sky, almost every rogue like, and so on where the procedural generation is one of the main draws. There are very few examples of AI art or voice acting that actually enhance a product. The only two I can think of are mods that can’t afford voice acting anyway (and people will cut slack for because they’re free fan projects) and vocaloid products like Hatsune Miku (though arguably they’re more tools than games).
I seriously doubt the average gamer has any real moral or ethical objections against AI. When AI voice work becomes indistinguishable from human VA, people will stop caring.
Ironically I do remember a fair bit of condemnation of proc gen in general about 15-20 years ago, when it started getting more mainstream attention instead of being just something inscrutable indie games with ASCII interfaces did. It wasn’t exactly new tech but people were starting to look at moving it into places that aren’t as well suited for it and that garnered a lot of discourse on whether it was a good idea that needed more work or a bad idea and a trap for devs who’d waste labor on a boondoggle.
Even now it’s more found a middle ground where it’s still often disliked and criticized (with some exceptions, like map layouts in ARPGs, roguelites in general, etc) as being vapid and boring compared to bespoke work, but it’s largely tolerated and no one’s particularly up in arms about it more than they are about roguelites or survival crafting games being oversaturated genres.
I think it comes down to (perceived) quality of implementation and how long each tool has been used.
Procedural level generation has been implemented to good effect in many games going back decades to Diablo (II?). Most gamers acknowledge that it can be done well, so it’s easier to defend from criticism whenever some asset flip survival crafting game botches it.
AI art and voice work is a lot less proven. Most of the time they lead to measurable drops in quality when implemented. Look at the criticism around Stasis: Bone Totem for an example of how distracting AI art is in the context of an otherwise competent game.
There’s also the perception that procedural generation is a valid artistic choice whereas AI is a pure cost cutting exercise. There are games like Dwarf Fortress, No Man’s Sky, almost every rogue like, and so on where the procedural generation is one of the main draws. There are very few examples of AI art or voice acting that actually enhance a product. The only two I can think of are mods that can’t afford voice acting anyway (and people will cut slack for because they’re free fan projects) and vocaloid products like Hatsune Miku (though arguably they’re more tools than games).
I seriously doubt the average gamer has any real moral or ethical objections against AI. When AI voice work becomes indistinguishable from human VA, people will stop caring.
Ironically I do remember a fair bit of condemnation of proc gen in general about 15-20 years ago, when it started getting more mainstream attention instead of being just something inscrutable indie games with ASCII interfaces did. It wasn’t exactly new tech but people were starting to look at moving it into places that aren’t as well suited for it and that garnered a lot of discourse on whether it was a good idea that needed more work or a bad idea and a trap for devs who’d waste labor on a boondoggle.
Even now it’s more found a middle ground where it’s still often disliked and criticized (with some exceptions, like map layouts in ARPGs, roguelites in general, etc) as being vapid and boring compared to bespoke work, but it’s largely tolerated and no one’s particularly up in arms about it more than they are about roguelites or survival crafting games being oversaturated genres.
Much older than that; Diablo 1 was some cheap Christmas game released in 1996, the original rogue was released in 1980.