Nvidia’s CEO just addressed the claim that DLSS 5 is 'AI slop'
And he says there’s a big difference
🤖 Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has addressed the claim that DLSS 5 is “AI slop”
🤔 The key difference is that DLSS 5 is “3D conditioned, 3D guided” and is reliant on the developer’s implementation as to the final result
🤷♂️ Artists have control over the model, and can also choose not to use it, according to Huang
😡 Gamers have been quick to criticize Nvidia for the new model, stating that it oversteps the mark by making images look too AI generated
Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, has come out and addressed the widespread claim that Team Green’s new DLSS 5 upscaler is “AI slop”.
As part of a new interview on the Lex Fridman Podcast, Huang was asked to explain the “drama” around the forthcoming upscaler, stating that he could “see where they’re [critics] coming from, because I don’t love AI slop myself”.
He went on to state that the difference between DLSS 5 and other “AI slop” is that the new upscaler is “3D conditioned, 3D guided.” The artists behind a game are still the ones creating the in-game structural geometry and textures that form the “ground truth structure” that DLSS 5 works from, Huang said. “And so every single frame, it enhances, but it doesn’t change anything,” he said.
The key differentiation, according to Huang, is that DLSS 5 is not a beauty filter for game elements such as characters, and the scope and scale of its implementation lie more with the developer than Nvidia itself.
He expanded that because DLSS 5 is “open”, artists can train the model for the specific look that they want, and in the future may be able to prompt the upscaler model with examples of a desired look.
Nvidia has previously come out and said that developers have “artistic control” over DLSS 5, which is the crux of the issue here, with Huang also stating in this podcast interview that developers “could decide not to use it” if they didn’t want to.
Developers such as Bethesda, Capcom, Tencent, Ubisoft and Warner Bros. Games have committed to using the project in upcoming titles, with games such as Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Resident Evil Requiem supporting DLSS 5 from release.
The upscaler is due out in “fall 2025”, according to a press release from Nvidia last week, and works with new lighting and materials to help make game scenes more “photorealistic”.
Up next: I asked a non-gamer what they thought of Nvidia’s DLSS 5 – and it went exactly how I expected
Reece Bithrey is a journalist with bylines for Trusted Reviews, Digital Foundry, PC Gamer, TechRadar and more. He also has his own blog, UNTITLED, and graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in International History and Politics in 2023.