Hideo Kojima goes in hard on AI and is worried we'll all 'be unknowingly led into a predetermined lifestyle'

Hideo Kojima wearing a Policenauts t-shirt.

(Image credit: Hideo Kojima)

Death Stranding 2: On The Beach recently released on PlayStation 5 (a PC version is inevitable but yet to be announced) and, wouldn't you know it, Hideo Kojima has seized the chance to go on the interview circuit.

As well as being a brilliant maker of games Kojima is also a master of promoting them, and knows how to raise the audience's collective eyebrow: from saying he's bummed out that playtesters were enjoying Death Stranding 2 too much to pontificating on death and declaring "I will not pass on the baton: rather, I will crush the baton."

"I don't feel like we should do without the Internet now," says Kojima. "It's so convenient. I think we survived the COVID-19 pandemic because of the Internet. But I think it's dangerous to become so dependent on it. I think it's important to consider how you will use convenient technology."

Ever the PR master, Kojima says his answer is spoken by a character at the end of Death Stranding 2. "I'd like you to think about my answer. It's a 'choice' of how you want to live your life using this technology."

Kojima ties a bow on all of this by emphasising the Earthiness of human reality, the roads travelled and the lives that were changed along the way. But his final shot at AI is the reference to Hawaii, and how he talks about the way another recent fad portrays it.

"As long as humans have a physical body, I think they move as individuals… you all have travelled to get here today," said Kojima to the interview audience. "It might be by car, bus, or train, or it might just be a trip back-and-forth, but during that time you'll meet a lot of different people and see a lot of different scenery.

"You can go to Hawaii in the metaverse, but it's completely different when you actually go there. First you go to the airport [here], then you get on a plane, and when you arrive there, there are smells and temperatures that you can only experience there.

"I think that such adventures add color to my life, so I don't want to lose them."

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."

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