Running from rigour
MSI has shown a new monitor at the CES 2026 Tech Conference in Las Vegas (the MEG X) that has an in-built AI assistant that puts multiplayer games under threat. The monitor makes in-game characters more visible, can adjust brightness in darker areas, has an AI Scope that zooms automatically to aim more precisely, and more. As the AI is within the monitor, anti-cheat software will not be able to detect the cheat. The narrative is that it will ‘support the player’ but reality will bring mass-cheating.
If you want to use AI to assist your single-player game play, that is up to you. But when using AI assistance in multi-player games, it is not the individual who suffers, it is the community. Players have always tried to cheat in multi-player games, but with AI monitors it becomes almost impossible for gaming companies to notice the cheating. Pay-to-win has gone to a new level. For many players it is not about mastering a game, it is about pretending to be a master and this pretence will make online games insufferable to play. With hardware like the MEG X it has never been easier to cheat.
And monitors are not the only AI cheats coming to gaming. Sony has registered a patent to have AI assistants, or AI “ghost players” to play your games. They could either show a solution or complete an obstacle for you. Ethan Gack at Kotaku reports that there is no indication Sony will not implement this in their games soon, but as it would be an interesting addition to their lucrative battle pass, it can be expected to be implemented one day. But we should ask ourselves, like Gach, whether offloading your gameplay to an AI assistant and removing all friction would improve that gameplay.
Stylosa (his review is below) quotes BlueSky user funbil: “the point of a movie is not to be done watching. the point of a song is not to be done listening. the gamers’ obsession with completion as the only motivator to play a game has directly led to the medium’s worst traits. “AI gaming ghost” is a reflection of the lack of willingness to engage.” This lack goes beyond gaming.
The underlying issue is a growing laziness in our society: people want to ‘be’ rather than ‘become.’ They want to pluck the fruit without climbing the tree and claim recognition for having that fruit. There is a natural human tendency for convenience. To a certain extent, this is helpful, think of the dishwasher or washing machine. However, there comes a moment when convenience overshadows mastery. If we haven’t gone through the rigour of effort, of challenging ourselves, we will stagnate in our development. Like the people in Pixar’s Wall-E, we become helplessly entertained: it will get us through the day but it will also make those days less meaningful.
(Generative) AI removes rigour. It throws up an illusion of mastery by skipping the required friction for mastery. But mastery does not only need knowledge or even understanding, it demands schemas in our memory that can only be built by putting in the effort. Without deep engagement, we run the risk of becoming spectators rather than actors yet demand a place on stage. And by doing so, the play will eventually suffer. For if we try to cheat mastery, we will not only cheat ourselves, we will make the whole theatre a cheat.
