"Stardew Valley" is a game known for its cozy, homey atmosphere, with complex, well-developed characters as a small village tries to survive in the looming shadow of a giant corporation. So it is clear that an AI company has created a mod that strips away their personalities and replaces them with a large language model: "By default, 33 brains are provided."

InworldAI promises to "create distinct personalities and context-aware characters that stay in-world and within the brand."

"But watching the Pelican Town civilians string together innocuous text feels like wandering into another Jojamart bad ending, where all the textured characters of "Stardew Valley" have been bodily abducted by clones.

What makes "Stardew Valley" work so well is that we become attached to the characters while developing an engaging slow-burn story. For example, Shane is a character who suffers from both depression and alcoholism. Getting to know him means unraveling his thorny exterior and helping him face his own demons. Despite the otherwise obviously cozy and "cute" game, a heartwarming story unfolds.

But how about spending only a limited amount of time comfortably with a well-developed character? If you don't like Shane or his problems, tinker with them. This is the new Shane, and he talks about long walks in the woods with exclamation points. Don't ask what happened to the old Shane, it doesn't matter, the new Shane loves you.

I don't mean to come down hard on players who prefer this - after all, the prospect of actually talking to your favorite NPC is appealing. But when I see comments like, "Can you make a tutorial on how to edit an existing brain?" or "I tried to edit Haley's personality, but it [keeps crashing]," I feel, uh, not good.

As technology advances, the use of AI in mods is gaining momentum, with some disastrous examples affecting the voice acting community in particular. It has become harder to know exactly where these "brains" are being pulled from, but still there are some strange violations in what I am seeing.

Maybe I'm just being obtuse, but I find it self-defeating to dig up the personality that Eric Baron (aka ConcernedApe), the developer of "Stardew," worked so hard to create. I like stories with character. They have something to say, they tell it, and then it ends. I don't want to spend a hundred hours talking to Shane if that time is pointless.

That said, when AI is built into the design from the ground up, as in the Stanford AI experiment and Hidden Door, I am not so concerned. There are also plenty of ways to use this technology for good, such as translating 5,000-year-old stone tablets or messing with other AI-generated scam calls. However, tampering with the intentional world, especially when it involves companies intervening in community-driven towns, is a win/win situation for me.