Paolo Pedercini, the developer known as Molleindustria, has removed generative-AI content from Future? No Thanks! after players discovered it had not initially been disclosed. Refunds are now available to purchasers who feel misled.
A political adventure with an uncomfortable contradiction
Released in September, Future? No Thanks! is an adventure game about a grumpy older man trying to complete his bucket list before undergoing assisted suicide. Its setting imagines a future where climate change is finally being addressed, democracy is flourishing and technology works for the public good.
The game was presented as an “ecosocialist utopia”, created with locally sourced talent and limited involvement from capitalists, marketers and profiteers. That framing made its undisclosed use of generative AI particularly contentious for players who connected with the project’s politics.
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What AI content was used?
In a blog post, Pedercini confirmed that the game originally included two text-to-speech voices and two music loops generated with Suno. He also said that a “tiny fraction” of the code had been debugged with ChatGPT and Claude.
The disclosure sat awkwardly alongside Pedercini’s later description of AI as “a technofascist, anti-human and anti-art project”. The issue was not simply whether the tools appeared in the game, but whether players had been given enough information before buying it.
The AI material has been removed
In another blog post, Pedercini clarified that the AI-generated voices and music had been taken out. The small amount of AI-assisted code remained.
He explained that the music loops were intended to mock people who listen to “slop” in early demonstrations, while the synthetic voices seemed funnier in that context. Even so, he acknowledged that the game was now “0.001% worse” in his view.
Pedercini is offering refunds through PayPal and Venmo to people who purchased the game and “still feel betrayed”. He also said his next game will be entirely hand-coded.
A debate about satire and tools
The controversy is especially striking because Molleindustria has built an expansive library of politically charged games. Those works include games about booing a Confederate flag, exploring Soviet workers’ clubs and running The New York Times while attempting to satisfy Israel and wealthy interests. Their politics are direct rather than understated.
That history makes the clash in Future? No Thanks! more pronounced: the game imagines an environmentally responsible, socialist future while using technology that its creator has described in deeply hostile terms. Pedercini’s sarcastic response included comparisons involving a sandwich with “only a little” excrement and a satire about a puppy-killing machine.
Critics also argue that AI can be the subject of satire without being used to produce the work itself. The television series It’s Always Sunny did it, offering one example of that approach.
Why disclosure matters to game players
For arcade operators, collectors and home players, the dispute highlights a broader issue around authorship and transparency. Whether a project is a digital adventure or a physical arcade cabinet, buyers deserve clear information about how its creative assets were made.
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