Richard Garriott Says AI Tools Have Cut Shroud of the Avatar’s Bug Count to “Zero”

Richard Garriott says AI tools have changed day-to-day development on Shroud of the Avatar, especially when it comes to fixing bugs. Speaking on the TechJesse podcast, the MMORPG creator said the game used to carry a bug backlog of at least a thousand issues, including some that had been sitting around for three to five years because they never rose high enough on the priority list.

Garriott claimed that’s no longer the case. “Now, with AI, those bugs are fixed as soon as they’re found, within an hour of them being found,” he said. He went even further, saying Shroud of the Avatar now has “zero bugs” each day.

He described the current process as a mix of AI-assisted documentation, report comparison, recompiling, testing, and suggested fixes. A human still checks the proposed solution before it goes into the game, according to Garriott. His view is that the workflow is “dramatically superior” to the older, fully manual approach.

Garriott also pushed back a bit on the idea that AI is replacing the creative side of development. He said the tools have made him more directly involved again, letting him “get right in the weeds,” while still leaving judgment calls to people. “Humans do the art, machines can help do the labor,” he said.

The comments come after a recent large update for Shroud of the Avatar and alongside Garriott’s stated interest in reclaiming the Ultima copyright. For players, the most concrete takeaway is the bug-fixing claim, though “zero bugs” is a big statement for any live MMO, and Garriott framed it as a result of the team’s new AI-assisted workflow rather than a complete removal of human oversight.