So, 47% of PC Gamer readers say they don't use AI at all, but I wonder...
There are many different facets to the collection of technologies that come under the banner of 'AI', and many of them have become almost a constant presence in our lives whether we like it or not. Even if we're not card carrying members of the ChatGPT Pro clique, there is a pervasiveness to it all where you will be lucky to go ten minutes without someone mentioning or referencing AI. Or having some AI-generated AK47-toting panda jammed into your eyeballs via some ever-more unhinged ad campaign.
And when it comes to PC gaming specifically, most of us are very much against the idea of either us or the devs using AI in games. You only have to look at the furor around DLSS 5 to get an idea of what the hivemind thinks about AI in gaming terms.
But I really wanted to know what that looked like in percentage terms, so asked: Do you use AI, and if so, what for? To get some nuance in the conversation I enabled users to pick three answers if they wanted and use AI for different things. But I'd say the answers are more explicit than nuanced.
Do you use AI, and if so, what for?
Votes (%)
| Product | Value |
|---|---|
| I don't use AI at all | 47 |
| I use it for in-game upscaling, such as DLSS or FSR4 | 27 |
| I use it for research or ideation | 23 |
| I use it for coding | 18 |
| I USE IT FOR EVERYTHING | 7 |
| It writes my emails for me | 4 |
| It does all my schoolwork | 2 |
| I have OpenClaw set up running my digital life | 1 |
I expected there to be a healthy percentage of readers who took part in the poll saying they don't use AI at all, but given that PC gamers have had DLSS since 2019 I thought more would use upscaling than those who don't use anything. And yet we have 47%—almost half of readers who answered the poll—saying they don't even use DLSS or FSR.
Now, I get that the vehemently ideologically opposed may well be happy to accept lower frame rates in their PC games to maintain their place atop that ivory tower, and that I am merely a weak human being for sticking DLSS Quality on wherever I see it in the settings. But really... half of you don't do it?
The flip side of that stat is that a little more than half of you do use AI for different things. A surprisingly low—to me, at least—27% of readers say they use AI-based upscaling, but 23% are already using AI for ideation and research.
I find it also interesting that 18% of our readers are actively using AI to code with. And I can understand that, as someone who has changed the way I approach testing because of access to AI coding tools. If there isn't a tool to test something, there's a chance now a dummy like me can make my own.
The alternative view is that 7% of readers say they use it for effectively everything. Which is actually a lot more than I would have thought, as is the 1% of readers who have set up OpenClaw to ruin their digital life. Sorry, run their digital life.
I'm now keen to dig a little deeper into that upscaling use specifically. So, this week I'm asking: Do you use upscaling? Tell me more.