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To disclose generative AI use on a Steam game listing, complete section 3, “Generative Artificial Intelligence Content,” of the Steamworks Content Survey before submitting the store page and product build for review. Report AI-generated content that players consume in the game or encounter in its store page, community assets, or marketing materials. If content is generated while the game runs, describe the guardrails intended to prevent illegal output as well as the implementation itself.
What does Steam require developers to disclose?
Steam’s current standard focuses on generative AI used to create content that ships with the game or its related store and marketing materials and is consumed by players. It does not make every AI-assisted step in development the subject of this survey section. Valve says the section is about player-facing content such as artwork, sound, narrative, and localization—not efficiency gains from AI-powered development tools. Read Valve’s Steamworks Content Survey documentation before submitting, since Valve says its AI policy and technology are evolving.
The threshold question asks whether the game uses generative AI to create content “for the game, either pre-rendered or live-generated,” including the game itself, its store page, and Steam community assets or marketing materials. That wording was reported from the rewritten developer form in January 2026. If the answer is yes, describe the implementation in detail. The key distinction is whether generated output reaches players—not simply whether a developer used an AI feature somewhere in the production process.
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In practice, assess each use separately. A title might include generated background textures in its build, machine-translated store text, and runtime NPC dialogue. Those are different content types and may fall into different survey categories. An AI-assisted workflow is not a reason to omit content that players actually see, hear, or read.
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| Use of AI | Generally within the disclosure’s focus? | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Generated artwork, textures, sprites, models, sound, music, voice lines, narrative, or dialogue included in the game | Yes | Players consume the generated content in the shipped product. |
| Generated localization, interface text, or store-page copy that players read | Yes | Generated language is still player-facing content when it ships. |
| AI-generated capsule art, trailer material, or Steam community and marketing assets | Yes | The form’s reported wording includes the store page and related materials, even if the game build contains no generated assets. |
| Code completion or an AI feature in an engine or IDE used only to work faster | Not the focus by itself | Valve distinguishes development efficiency from AI-created content consumed by players. |
| Brainstorming, research, or planning that does not appear in the shipped game or associated materials | Not the focus by itself | There is no player-facing generated output to describe under the stated test. |
| Reference or concept art redrawn by hand, or a placeholder asset replaced before release | Not ordinarily, if no generated output ships | The relevant question is whether AI-created content remains in what players consume. Valve has not publicly defined every boundary case. |
| Traditional gameplay AI such as enemy behavior or pathfinding | Not what this generative-AI section describes | Valve’s examples concern generated content, not ordinary game logic or behavior. |
Some edge cases remain unsettled in Valve’s public documentation. For example, it does not spell out a universal threshold for AI-upscaled textures, heavily overpainted generations, or procedural systems trained on generated data. For a borderline asset, consider whether generated material remains in the player-facing result and describe the workflow plainly rather than assuming a particular amount of editing makes disclosure unnecessary.
Where is the Steam AI disclosure form?
The disclosure is in section 3 of the Steamworks Content Survey. The survey has three required areas: General Content, Mature Content, and Generative Artificial Intelligence Content. Valve says developers must complete it before the store page and product build go through review; the survey helps Valve review the product and helps customers understand its content and account preferences. See the Steam review process for the broader submission sequence.
Steamworks is a developer-facing system, so the active form is available to the app’s Steamworks partners rather than as a public form. The public documentation is the right place to confirm the policy, but field labels and form presentation can change. Use the current form for the actual submission rather than relying on screenshots or older guides.
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How do I complete the Steam AI disclosure form in Steamworks?
Work through the survey before sending the store page and build for review. The clearest answers identify what players will encounter, whether it was made ahead of time or generated during play, and—where generation is live—how the system is constrained.
- Open the app’s Content Survey in Steamworks. Complete the survey for the app whose store page and product build are being submitted. The AI questions are in section 3, Generative Artificial Intelligence Content.
- Answer the threshold question for all player-facing materials. Consider the executable and its content, but also the store page, Steam community assets, and marketing materials. A game with entirely human-made in-game assets can still use generated content in a trailer or listing.
- If no generated content reaches players, answer accordingly. Use the current form’s wording and answer based on the shipped game and associated materials. Tool use limited to coding assistance, planning, or assets removed before release is not the focus of this disclosure section.
- Describe pre-generated content specifically. Identify the kind of content, where it appears, what tools or AI systems helped create it, and what human editing or review took place. Distinguish generated elements from work made by people where that distinction helps customers understand the product.
- For live generation, explain the guardrails too. State what content the system can generate and what measures are used to prevent illegal output. Describe the controls actually used—such as blocked categories, filters, moderation services, or monitoring—rather than listing safeguards that are not implemented.
- Submit the survey with the store page and build for review. Valve reviews AI-generated output under the same content promises that apply to non-AI content and expects the product to match its marketing.
- Revisit the disclosure when content changes. If a later patch adds generated content, do not assume an approved survey can be freely edited. Valve says some survey answers cannot be changed after approval without first contacting Steam Support.
There is no Valve-authored sample paragraph in the public documentation. A useful answer should be concrete enough that a buyer can tell what is generated and where it appears. For example, saying “some AI art” leaves the medium and scope unclear; a description of AI-assisted background textures, their location in the game, and how the team edited them gives customers more meaningful information. This is a writing approach, not a required Valve template.
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What is the difference between pre-generated and live-generated AI on Steam?
Pre-generated AI content is created during development and ships in the game for players to consume. Live-generated AI content is created with AI tools while the game is running; Valve requires developers to describe guardrails for this category in addition to following the rules that apply to pre-generated content.
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| Category | When content is created | Examples | What to explain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-generated | During development, before the game runs for the player | Shipped generated textures, audio, dialogue, narrative, or localization | What content was created with AI, where it appears, and how it was edited or reviewed. |
| Live-generated | While the game is running | NPC chat generated during play, images generated in a session, or realtime narrative | The generated content and the guardrails intended to prevent illegal output. |
| Both | During development and at runtime | A game with generated textures in its build and AI-generated NPC conversation | Describe the shipped assets and the live system separately, including runtime safeguards. |
A project can use both categories, so do not force the entire game into a single label. The practical test is the timing of each output: if a generated asset is created before release and included in the build, it is pre-generated; if the game creates content with AI while it is running, it is live-generated. A live system can also coexist with fixed, human-authored content.
Live generation carries an additional constraint: Valve says developers must tell Steam what guardrails they use to ensure the AI is not generating illegal content. The documentation does not prescribe one universal technical architecture or publish a checklist that guarantees acceptance. Describe the measures in your actual implementation and avoid implying that any safeguard makes the system risk-free.
Does using AI to write code require Steam disclosure?
Code assistants and autocomplete used only to help developers write or review code are not the focus of the current generative-content disclosure. Valve’s January 2026 wording explicitly separates efficiency gains from AI tools from generated content that ships and is consumed by players.
That is different from an AI tool generating player-facing text or assets. If code-generation tools produce dialogue, localization, art, sound, or other content that remains in the product, assess and disclose that output based on the content—not merely on the fact that code was involved. The same distinction applies to AI features built into an engine or IDE: their presence alone is not the relevant test; what matters here is whether their generated content reaches players.
Does AI-generated marketing art or translation need to be disclosed?
Yes, if generated marketing art or translations appear in materials players encounter. The reported 2026 form wording expressly includes the store page, Steam community assets, and marketing materials, while Valve’s examples include localization. That means disclosure is not limited to content inside the game executable.
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Store and promotional assets
Consider capsule images, store-page illustrations, trailers, community artwork, and other promotional material associated with the game. If generative AI helped create an asset that is published for players or potential buyers, include it in the assessment even if every in-game asset was made without AI.
Translations and localized text
Machine-translated interface text, dialogue, or store copy that ships is player-consumed language content. Translation is easy to overlook because it may not look like an image or audio asset, but players read it as part of the product. Describe which text or language content was generated and where it appears.
Mixed human and AI workflows
If a team generated an initial image and then substantially edited it, or used AI only for one layer of a larger human-made asset, explain the contribution in ordinary language. Valve’s public documentation does not define a bright-line “amount of editing” that removes an asset from the disclosure, so avoid presenting a subjective editing threshold as an official exemption.
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Valve said when it introduced the disclosure in January 2024 that much of a developer’s disclosure would appear on the game’s Steam store page so customers could understand how the game uses AI. January 2026 reporting described the public-facing area as “AI Generated Content Disclosure.” The survey therefore serves both Valve’s review and customer-facing transparency.
Write the description as if a customer will use it to understand what was generated, how it is used, and what was made by people. A broad phrase may technically signal AI involvement but leave buyers unable to distinguish generated background details from generated dialogue, voice, or marketing imagery. State the actual scope without suggesting that Valve requires a particular marketing tone or stock disclaimer.
Can a game use AI and still pass Steam review?
Disclosure itself is not a blanket approval or exemption. Valve evaluates AI-generated content under the same Steam Distribution Agreement promises as other content: the game must not include illegal or infringing material, and it must be consistent with its marketing materials. Valve’s Content Survey FAQ says products must follow Steam’s content rules whether or not the survey discloses the content.
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For live-generated material, those general rules combine with the requirement to describe guardrails against illegal output. Valve has also said it does not want to ship Live-Generated AI Adult Only Sexual Content at this time, citing legal and customer risks. A developer should not assume that completing the form makes otherwise prohibited content acceptable.
Valve’s January 2024 announcement said Steam would add a way for players to report illegal content in games containing live-generated AI. The public Content Survey documentation does not spell out a detailed penalty ladder for inadequate safeguards or omitted disclosures. Valve has not published audit rates, takedown totals, or a count of games rejected or delisted solely for missing AI disclosure; press coverage has described enforcement as opaque. This lack of published enforcement metrics does not change the requirement to complete the survey accurately.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What if AI content is added after the game is approved?
Do not assume that you can edit every answer after approval. Valve says some Content Survey questions cannot be changed without first contacting Steam Support. If a patch adds AI-generated assets or runtime generation, contact support before treating the old survey as sufficient.
When you contact support about a change, summarize what changed, identify the affected survey answer, and explain how a tester can access the new content. That information helps Valve evaluate the specific change rather than making the support request a general policy question. Steamworks also invites developers who believe the AI policy misses an important issue to contact publishing support.
How has Steam’s AI disclosure rule changed?
The form’s scope has been clarified over time, so older guidance may describe a different rule. Steam added its AI disclosure section in January 2024; Valve rewrote the relevant form wording in January 2026 to emphasize player-consumed generated content and to say that efficiency gains from development tools are not the focus.
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|---|---|---|
| 9 January 2024 | Valve announced disclosure categories for pre-generated and live-generated content, said much of the disclosure would appear on store pages, and described player reporting for illegal live-generated content. | This is the origin of the two-category framework, but it predates the later clarification about development-efficiency tools. |
| 16–19 January 2026 | Valve rewrote the form to distinguish AI tools used for efficiency from AI-created content that ships and is consumed, including store and marketing materials. | Guides that treat coding-assistant use alone as the disclosure trigger may reflect older wording. |
| 29 October 2026 | Valve’s public Content Survey documentation describes the current player-consumed-content focus and continues to distinguish pre-generated from live-generated output. | Check the official documentation and the live form near submission because Valve says the area is evolving. |
How common is AI disclosure on Steam?
Published figures indicate that disclosed use has grown, but they measure disclosures or developer survey responses—not the complete number of games that use generative AI. VGC reported an analysis finding nearly 8,000 Steam titles released in the first six months of 2025 had disclosed generative AI, compared with around 1,000 across all of 2024. GamesIndustry.biz reported Totally Human Media’s estimate that 7% of Steam games disclosed generative AI use, up from 1.1% the year before.
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A separate Game Developers Conference survey, as reported by VGC in 2025, found 52% of developers said they worked at companies that used generative AI tools. That is a developer self-report about company tool use, not a measure of AI content shipped on Steam. VGC noted that actual involvement in games could be higher than disclosure counts if some developers do not disclose it.
Does Steam disclosure settle copyright or ownership questions?
No. Filling out the survey does not grant rights to an image, voice, text, or other generated material, and it does not replace the developer’s obligation to avoid infringing content. Steam’s disclosure process and the legal question of whether a particular output is protected or usable are separate issues.
Copyright rules depend on jurisdiction and may change. The materials available for this article note U.S. human-authorship considerations and a March 2026 Supreme Court decision not to revisit that issue, but they do not establish the rights status of any individual asset. Studios with questions about ownership, training inputs, licenses, or commercial use should get advice from qualified counsel rather than treating a Steam disclosure as legal clearance.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Can Steam’s AI disclosure be edited after approval?
Not every answer can necessarily be changed in the approved survey. Valve says some changes require contacting Steam Support first; provide the affected answer and explain how a tester can access the changed content.
Does Steam publish how many games were rejected for missing AI disclosure?
Valve has not published a count of games rejected or delisted solely for failing to disclose AI use, nor a public audit rate or penalty ladder. That means developers cannot use a published enforcement statistic to judge whether an omission is likely to be noticed.
Does disclosing AI-generated assets give the developer copyright ownership?
No. A disclosure describes how a game uses AI; it does not create ownership rights or confirm that an asset is non-infringing. Copyright and licensing questions need to be assessed separately for the relevant jurisdiction and material.
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