By Todd Russell
If you haven’t heard or read the flaming controversy over Jersey Jack Pinball allegedly using some AI gen in their newest game Harry Potter artwork, this will be my take, perhaps a much different one than you’ve read from others. But first, let’s give you what others are saying for context.
First up is Colin from the Kineticist that tries to report and disprove whether or not AI gen was used. He spoke with Jersey Jack himself, and the founder denies any usage of AI, you can read this here: What’s Going on With JJP’s Harry Potter and the AI Art Controversy? | Kineticist — this is one of Colin’s better pieces, where he truly does try to keep it factual, but it’s almost like he wants readers to agree with him that this can’t possibly be accurate. Why would such a high end company like JJP that espouses “no comprises” cheap out and go with AI gen in some of the art?
It’s a fair question but not the most important one, in my opinion. You can go over to Pinside and find the long, extremely active thread on the subject, linked through Colin’s piece, I’m not going to give that angle any more air that others have already analyzed from every possible angle.
Then there’s Jason Knapp giving more of an executive summary on the mess here: Weighing In On the Jersey Jack Pinball Harry Potter AI Controversy — I took some exception to where he clearly doesn’t want to go too negative when he writes on certain topics: “I try to keep things on this website positive, so it pains me to write anything like this here but I also have integrity. I feel as though it is possible to do both.”
Is it? When does integrity mean you hold back on something because it might be perceived as too negative? That’s more like being nice. Being classy.
You can read my back and forth with Jason on his site in the comments area, but clearly we disagree about keeping a publication content more positive, holding back on more raw feelings on a topic, if you will, is a good way to demonstrate integrity.
Just to be crystal clear: I think Jason Knapp has integrity. I like reading his articles and insight. What I disagree with is if one modifies their true feelings on something, if we don’t tell people the way we truly feel about something, we’re not showing complete honesty on that subject. By design, we’re holding back on some element of how we truly feel. Strong moral principles mean doing things that are sometimes unpopular, if it’s what we truly feel. Jason admits he wants his publication to be more positive and yet in an article labeled as “weighing in” on AI art he never comes down on one side or the other, until I asked him to do so in the comments. Sometimes, it’s necessary to choose where to plant a stake in the ground. He does say he doesn’t really care about the AI art gen being used once I pressed him, but that part wasn’t included in his article. I wish it had been, but what’s done is done.
Alas, we reach the land of PGM.
Here I don’t have any editorial mission to only/primarily keep things positive. I always give you my 100% unfiltered, unvarnished truth and unlike Colin or Jason, I’m not going to go down the rabbit hole of explaining or summarizing what might have/have not happened, who said what, yadda, yadda.
To me, it’s clear JJP used some AI gen with Harry Potter pinball art.
That’s my opinion, that’s not a statement of fact. JJP can like or dislike that all day long. They can deny it, do whatever they want. Pinball life goes on.
So, the rest of this is working with that assumption that, yes, JJP used AI gen art. If that’s too acerbic a take, there’s the door. Take it, nobody is charging you to be here reading. Personally and professionally, I don’t see the harm in going out on that limb based on what I’ve seen and read. If I’m wrong, I’ll be happy to correct.
Now, let’s get into my experience directly and personally with AI, because I have a ton more experience using AI than Jason or Colin seem to have. This publication, PlayGamesmore, has used AI gen art at times — sparingly, but some — since its inception. We don’t have any advertising here, there is no money being made by this publication. There is no budget to pay writers or artists, so that’s been and probably will continue to be until/if we start making some kind of money, why we use AI gen art here sometimes. If we had the budget to do so, we’d pay writers for articles and artists to make placeholder images, but we don’t, so, that’s the reality herein.
Importantly, we have an editorial policy of labeling AI art and use of AI gen so readers are not duped by what was/wasn’t created by a human being. I believe, strongly, transparency is the #1 problem with AI gen usage across all industries. It’s not necessarily that AI generation is being used, it’s when it’s not disclosed, when, where and how, leaving a lack of transparency that causes people to get upset.
Human beings do not like to be deceived. We don’t like the shadows and darkness and stuff going on that we don’t know about.
The good folks will tell us what they’re up to, what they’re plans are, why they are doing something unpopular. The bad actors don’t.
Jason mentioned in my comments to him that he doesn’t want to paint the pinball manufacturers as the “enemy” but my counter to that is, “if a company doesn’t disclose activity they’re ashamed of — or flat out lies, allegedly, if caught on something — isn’t that what an enemy does?”
Shame on JJP, if they did use AI, for not being transparent about it. This is a sin they will pay for more than AI gen art itself. People can and will get over AI art being used in pinball, they will, as long as it’s disclosed. If it’s not disclosed, you’re violating trust with your customers. That’s not wise in any business.
But it won’t be just art that AI gen infiltrates, it will be sound, music, callouts. Oh yes, callouts. I talked about all of this in 2023, this isn’t something we shouldn’t have seen coming (see: For the Low Price of $3,250 You Can Read This Report On the Future Of Pinball 2023-2031 – OR … Use Common Sense And Guess Along With Us).
The reality is this is the first time in pinball it has happened that anybody has noticed. And the first time something changes, something happens that’s unpopular is usually when it hits the fan.
I also have an AI band — AI Kills — that’s commercial in nature. I have made games with AI, published those — all free to date, mind you — and I’ve made art generated by AI. I have never, to date, used AI to write any articles like this one you’re reading here and have zero plans to do so in the future. I want this publication to remain human written and edited. Yet there are probably readers that will avoid reading PGM because they falsely believe or confuse because of the other AI gen stuff we do sometimes that a human being isn’t writing this text right now.
Wrong, this is 100% human written. So are the 500,000+ words worth of free articles I’ve written here to date. Look around, we have a ton of exclusive, original human written content here.
For my AI Kills band, although I didn’t do this at the beginning, I have started writing the lyrics and creating stories to tell in the songs instead of having AI generate the lyrics. The problem I’ve found is AI gen often has creative limitations. AI can’t generate, for example, the concept album, Stillbirth, just released as AI Kills third album (see: 6-6-2025 today is release day for AI KILLS third album STILLBIRTH)
AI generators can do one song at a time, but keeping a narrative that extends beyond one song is overly complex to pull off in text prompts and leads to all kinds of problems. It is simply not possible to do a concept album that tells a cohesive creative story in the lyrics of every song on the album with AI generation. Not as of this writing.
Someday AI music generators will be able to do this, but they can’t right now. I’m not saying that to brag for humanity, it’s a fact. The AI generators, all of them, have some limitations and flaws inherent by design.
Currently, the detail is where AI generated artwork in particular falls apart. It might be adding additional fingers to hands, or other illogical parts in places to people and creatures like dragons. AI gen is a mess with most text representations. The list of details goes on and on. It’s the reason most artists by trade do not like AI replacing their work. They know most humans, unless because of amputation or disability, have five fingers on a hand and five toes on a foot. They know 1980 is not “19800” and so on. Every pixel, every detail, every brush stroke matters to a true graphic artist, painter. It’s the same with words for writers. I’d give you that musicians feel the same about ever note chosen to play and singers care about what they do with pitch and nuance.
These are all creative details that AI just can’t do 100% human. Not in 2025. Maybe not in 2035. Someday these details will be replicated by a machine, I have no doubt, but we’re not there yet. I’m by far not the only creative person that feels this way. Take cartoonist, Paul Pope.
“I don’t worry about my career because I believe in human innovation. Call me an optimist. And the one distinct advantage we have over machine intelligence is — until we actually take the bridle off and machines are fully autonomous and have a conscience and a memory and emotional reflections, which are the things that are required in order to become an artist, or, for that matter, a human — they can’t replace what humans do.” – Cartoonist Paul Pope is more worried about killer robots than AI plagiarism | TechCrunch
If I were a graphic artist by trade, drawing being my bread and butter, I would not use any AI gen art in its current state for published work. Easy for me to say because this isn’t my professional trade. I can see clearly where it’s a mess in the detail. That sort of detail is the telltale sign of AI generated stuff. All AI generated stuff. It happens with the music that I have to re-generate and splice together songs and sounds sometimes to get what I want. And sometimes I don’t get completely what I want, but the song is “close enough” to what I want to match my lyrics and story. This sort of “it’s good enough” is what you get with AI generated content.
Just for the record, I’ve had stories written that I’ve realized weren’t exactly, word for word, what I wanted. They were close, as good as I could get them at the time with the words used. Sometimes I obsess over the words, sometimes I’m like “that’s the best I can do right now.” All creative people make some kind of compromises in their work from time to time. Maybe it takes them years to get what they want, but there are concessions of sorts. Saying concessions are never made by 100% human works is false. Some creative people might claim otherwise, but I’d say those people are lying. Eventually, if you create enough stuff, you will create something and look back and say “you know, I could have done X or Y better.” It’s that perfection we strive for as creative people, but we never quite get there. It’s because human beings aren’t perfect.
Before anybody asks me in the comments then why am I doing anything AI generated if it’s not as good as human beings can do? The answer is simple: I want to be part of the exploration of this new-found technology and experiment with these new programs. I want to see what a human being forged with the machine can produce. Can we build some new kind of creative avenue or type of thing that humans enjoy for entertainment? I’d rather be a part of that something in the early stages than wait for others to have explored it and provided their input in shaping this technology for the rest of the world. I get that some (many?) others are turned off by AI generation, but that’s not a good enough reason for me to ignore the creative opportunities it might someday provide.
The reality in 2025 is that AI generation is riddled with problems. It’s not 100% something we can rely upon, nor should we, nevermind all the positive press. That said, I’m not going to ignore its existence and put my head in the sand. I’m getting involved with it. Seeing what it can and can’t do firsthand.
My biggest problem with Jersey Jack Pinball is that if they used AI generated content, besides not disclosing it beforehand, why didn’t they pass along this savings to customers? This is what I feel is the main issue with AI generated content vs. 100% human created content. The latter has more value than the former. The more human you put into something, the more it is and should be worth.
JJP did offer an arcade version for a smidge under $10,000, presumably to go after the Stern Premium market, so I guess that was coming a bit closer to offering a pinball game that isn’t ridiculously overpriced. I’ve said it here a bunch of times, and so have others, JJP games cost too damn much. They do. If you don’t like or agree with that, we’ll have to agree to disagree. It’s a brutal fact. They live in a place where no AI generation should ever be. Making games by them should be 100% a human hand to art creation. That’s what they are charging for.
If they want to start selling JJP Harry Potters new in box for around or under the pro price of a Stern ($7,000 or less) I’ll give them AI generated artwork and assets. Personally, I don’t care about AI generated artwork on a pinball machine so long as it looks good and the price savings is passed along to my wallet and, most importantly, the game is fun to play.
I haven’t played Harry Potter yet, but if it shoots like Elton John, I’m interested. Harry Potter isn’t a theme I care much about, haven’t read the books, haven’t seen the movies, but if the game is fun to shoot, I’m going to play it. It’s a huge IP for JJP, and should be worth what they paid for it, if the game is good. If it isn’t, these games won’t move. Buying it comes down to price and perceived value for the price. To date, all JJP haven’t been in my price range. If people want to say I’m too poor to buy one, so be it. Some look down upon those that don’t buy Stern LEs or those that can only buy pros. I don’t care what pinball you buy: virtual pinball games, toy pinball, real machines, it’s all pinball to me. I applaud you buying into and playing in the hobby no matter what it is.
JJP has done very little to pass along savings in their games. That’s the issue at greater stake to me in seriously considering buying their games. It’s not using AI gen art that matters that much. To me, anyway. What say you, readers? Does a pinball company using AI gen art have any sort of sway on you buying the game? Would it?
It’s just a matter of time before somebody makes an almost entirely AI pinball machine – art, sounds, music, callouts — all AI , maybe even the design! Imagine an AI Keith Elwin? lol, I’m only half-joking here. The only thing human about it will be that it’s assembled by (mostly) humans … and even robots will do that someday too. Will this be a game worth playing? Who knows? If this happens while I’m still alive and it is fun to play, I’ll be flipping it. Am guessing others will too …
UPDATE 6/28/2025 @ 4:15am PST: the artist that worked on Harry Potter, Jesper, came out and admitted AI gen was used in some part of the creative process, but that management at JJP wasn’t told this. Shouldn’t this be part of the contract with artists? An AI generation clause of some sort? Betting it will be going forward on future works. Some sort of disclaimer similar to what Valve requires for any Steam games that use Ai generated assets/content.