According to Wccftech, Jennifer English—the voice actor behind Shadowheart in Baldur’s Gate 3 and now Maelle in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33—gave her blunt opinion on generative AI in game development at the 2025 Golden Joystick Awards. When asked about using AI, her response was simply “Don’t. Just don’t.” She argued that developers should “use your beautiful, creative human brains” instead, calling mistakes and flaws “wonderful” and essential to human creativity. This happened just before Clair Obscur swept the awards, winning in every category it was nominated for including Ultimate Game of the Year. English herself won Best Lead Performance, and the game later made history by earning 12 nominations for The Game Awards next month, the most any game has ever received in a single year.
The uncomfortable AI reality
Here’s the thing: English’s stance is completely understandable. As a voice actor, AI directly threatens her livelihood—we’ve already seen Embark Studios use AI voices in The Finals and ARC Raiders, taking work that could have gone to human performers. But the reality is more complicated than just saying “don’t.” Even her own game, Clair Obscur, faced allegations that developer Sandfall Interactive used generative AI for small assets before quietly swapping them out. So while actors like English can take a principled stand, developers are clearly experimenting with AI at multiple stages of development, whether we see the final results or not.
Why human flaws actually matter
English makes a crucial point that gets lost in the AI hype: “Mistakes are beautiful, mistakes are wonderful, flaws are wonderful.” That’s not just poetic—it’s practically true for creative work. Think about what made her performance as Shadowheart so memorable. It wasn’t perfect line delivery. It was the subtle imperfections, the emotional nuance, the things that can’t be programmed. AI can replicate technical proficiency, but can it create genuine emotional connection? I’m skeptical. The industry’s rush toward efficiency might actually strip away what makes games compelling in the first place.
An industry at odds with itself
What’s fascinating is how divided the game industry remains on this issue. On one side, you have studios like Epictellers Entertainment who told Wccftech “there is no point in using AI for any creative endeavor.” On the other, you have developers quietly implementing AI tools throughout their pipelines. This isn’t going away—the financial pressure to cut costs is too strong. But maybe the success of games like Clair Obscur, built on human performance and creativity, will remind the industry what players actually value.
Where do we go from here?
English’s “don’t” is powerful because it’s simple. But the conversation needs to be more nuanced. Should AI be banned entirely? Used as a tool alongside human creators? Or kept completely separate from creative roles? The fact that English is speaking out while her career is peaking—with Baldur’s Gate 3, Elden Ring, and now Clair Obscur all being massive successes—gives her platform real weight. As one observer noted, having three Clair Obscur actors nominated against each other for Best Performance says everything about what human talent brings to games. Maybe the industry should listen.
