Hasbro CEO Says MAGIC: THE GATHERING and DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Won’t Ever Use Generative AI

As generative AI keeps pushing its way into nearly every creative industry, fans have been wondering how far it might reach into the worlds they love.

Tabletop gaming hasn’t been immune to that conversation, especially when it comes to two of the most iconic brands in the space: Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons.

Now, Chris Cocks, the CEO of Hasbro, says those games are staying firmly human-made.

Cocks recently appeared on The Verge’s Decoder podcast and addressed how generative AI fits into the company’s future. The short answer is that for some franchises, the audience simply doesn’t want it anywhere near the creative process. That includes both Magic and D&D.

“There are some brands that the audience, the creators, just don’t want it. So we don’t even have it in our pipelines for our video games or for Magic: The Gathering or D&D.”

That stance marks a noticeable shift from comments Cocks made in late 2024. At the time, he suggested AI integration into Dungeons & Dragons felt “inevitable,” pointing out that he personally experimented with AI tools while running his own home games. Since then, it seems the reality of fan sentiment has had an impact.

During the interview, Cocks also reflected on the limits of AI in creative work, and described generative AI usage in the creative process as “a bit of ‘garbage in, garbage out,'” before adding that ultimately “it’s humans who inspire the good ideas and follow through on them.”

The thing is, both Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering had already put anti-AI policies in place before Cocks’ latest comments. Those rules came after some pretty public missteps that didn’t sit well with fans.

For Dungeons & Dragons, the controversy surfaced in the summer of 2023 when artwork in the Fifth Edition sourcebook Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants was found to include elements generated with AI.

The pieces were created by Illya Shkipin, and the backlash from the community was immediate. Wizards of the Coast eventually reprinted the book with replacement artwork and established official guidelines banning generative AI in the creative pipeline for D&D projects.

Later that year, Wizards extended the same policy to Magic: The Gathering. Even then, things didn’t go perfectly. A month after announcing the guidelines, the company had to issue an apology when marketing artwork for the Ravnica Remastered set included generative AI elements. The image had originally been defended as human-made before the situation was clarified.

All of that history likely played a role in the company’s current stance.

Interestingly, Cocks himself still enjoys using AI tools when he’s playing Dungeons & Dragons at home. According to him, his personal setup is loaded with them.

“There is so much AI-based animation, images, text, sound effects, and voice cloning on my PC, it would floor you.”

So while AI may still show up in Cocks’ private campaigns, it looks like players cracking open official products for Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons can expect something different, worlds built by human artists, designers, and storytellers.

For a lot of fans, that’s exactly how they want it.