itch.io

If the goal is to unobtrusively give users the option to filter against or for ai, maybe remove the obsolete filter "type" and use the space to have the ai content filter visible, instead of only showing it, when one of the filters is selected.

A few thoughts about how things are currently.

The "ai-assisted" filter changes the browse section on the left side. The same way that clicking "released" does. A previously hidden filter option appears, where you can change released, in development and so on. For ai you can switch between the positive filters of code, text, audio, graphics and assisted - and the no-ai tag is linked.

While the release status filters are mutual exclusive, the ai filters are not. But the filter options switch between them.

It is unclear what "assisted" would mean. I know only because I read this topic and tried what it does. It is mapped to the ai-generated tag, so it means having at least one of the other ai filters. But do casual users understand what "ai assisted" means in the context of the filter or of the info box? Maybe I have a different perspective, since English is not my native language. But I would say, no, it is very unclear. At closest it would mean basically the same as the ai-code filter. Assisted game making. But that's not what it means. It means that one or more of the other options is true. Assets, code, any combination. That's not what assistance is.

It should read something to the effect of "any of the ai categories". And in the more information box, it is redundant and ads to confusion. "So the game does not only use ai images, it also was made by assistance of ai..."

The ai filter on the left side also contains the no-ai tag, but that does not map to a filter, just the virtual tag that is generated by the ai disclosure question.

The ai filter options on the left side do not appear, when using the no-ai tag, which matters little. But it also does not appear when using the ai-generated virtual tag.

About 1.1. million games did not fill out the ai disclosure question. Will casual users understand that an empty section on the info box means just that? Is that maybe even the intended behaviour, or what should be intended. Steam has no ai filter, as they have no tag or feature for it. But as far as I know they do have mandatory disclosure questions that are more elaborate than yes/no, and the answers to that are listed in game descriptions to games that do contain ai generated assets, and possible code.

To my interpretation of quality guidelines, it was always meant for developers to mention ai usage for assets on games, maybe except for code, even before the ai disclosure question.

Since I did read this thread I do know what it means if I see a no-ai tag in a game's tag list. But tags that are not tags but still in the tag list are confusing. And doubly confusing, since some developers do use them as regular tags. Just like some use Unity as a tag.

The no-ai and the ai-generated tag appear in the suggested tag drop down box and appear when typing ai. But neither will activate the ai filter on the left side of browse.

AI Assistance is really unclear as a name for a filter section, if you would show it regularly, like platform and the likes. Assistance? Like an input method? Who assists whom, with what? It's generative ai usage. Or something like that. ai generated content. Ai content. If you say "assistance" I am gonna think "installation wizard"

And the type filter is really outdated and could be removed to gain space for a permantent new filter, if need be. Html5 is included in web under platform. And there are games that have both on the same page, but the combination of html5 and downloadable has 0 games.

There is a fundamental question about what people expect from a no-ai filter/tag and what Itch can deliver. The tag can currently only show games that actually have answered the ai disclosure. Only about 40k games have answered with a yes. So using the no-ai tag will not simply exclude those 40k games, but it will exclude 1.14 million games. The 40k games that definitly have ai, and the 1.1 million games that have not answered. This might be what some hardcore ai avoiders would want. But will it be what the average user expects.

The solution would be to have two different "no-ai" filters. One that only shows games that have answered with a no to the question and one that only excludes games that have answered with a yes.

I’ve been enjoying the new field on project pages the past few days. I open the details box on nearly every page I visit— would be nice if we could select to have that open by default, by the way— and the link on no-ai projects is appreciated. That link is reassuring, because it means more to me than the AI-generated links do.

Without the no-ai link, old pages where the box wasn’t selected would be indistinguishable from projects where the No button was selected. We’d have to guess by the date of the last update. I don’t know or remember when the box was added for developers. Then there also wouldn’t be an easy link to see more no-ai projects.

It would feel like AI-using projects would be promoted— favored by itch.io— when developer- or team-made-only projects aren’t.

The AI stuff is supposed to be noted in the project descriptions, anyway. It often isn’t. When it’s there, the link under details is redundant to me. When there’s no mention in the description, I’m looking for the no-ai tag in details.