Dear Google, please don’t mention death again

Google I/O 2026 It was boring to death. The speakers talked about artificial intelligence – of course – codes, agents and other things that put me to sleep. Until I was shocked by Varun Mohan from Google. He came on stage and dealt me ​​a psychological blow that I was not prepared for when he came death In part of the show.

Mohan showed that Google is using its Antigravity development platform to build an operating system and I asked him to play Doom As a kind of quality assurance test. He explained that it couldn’t because it lacked video drivers and a keyboard. Mohan then asked Antigravity to add the necessary drivers, which it did, allowing him to launch Freedoom, a free, open source game based on one of the most influential video games of all time.

Doom is a basic first-person shooter, packed with demon-slaying action and super fun, while… Google I/O presentation It was a lifeless display of unwanted AI features. As CNET’s Lori Gronin wrote in a roundup… Her favorite things from I/Othere was “a lot…that seemed problematic at best and miserable at worst.”

Doom and Google’s AI ambitions are so far apart in theory that it’s painful to hear them in the same sentence side by side. These AI tools can’t have the dexterity or creativity needed to build something as durable as Doom.

When Id Software released Doom in 1993, its complex level design was a major breakthrough. The game features different landscapes, locked doors, hidden rooms, and even different types of elevations within the level. Years before GoldenEye 64 left its mark on the first-person shooter genre, Doom presented mazes of death and destruction with narrow corridors and tight hiding spaces, and the lighting helped make these levels, filled with plenty of places for enemies to hide, look truly terrifying. The ingenuity of its level design continues Today’s lesson And he continues to inspire Communities From the players and creators who design the levels and modify the game.

Doom’s art direction was also unique. It combined sci-fi, fantasy and heavy metal influences in a way that made it feel completely original. It’s basically a cross between Dungeons & Dragons, Ridley Scott’s Alien, and Slayer Squad. This creative vision helped shape countless games that followed. I can’t imagine movies like Event Horizon or games like it aura It is made without death.

However, the current list of AI tools lacks the creativity needed to push any boundaries forward or create something that feels lastingly impactful. These tools draw on previous saw works in minced meat and repackage them into a modern-day simulacra. There is no forward thinking, just derivatives of what has already been done.

This lack of creativity was especially evident as I watched the presenters try to reinforce Gemini’s ability to (check notes), write emails, and come up with ideas for family activities. There wasn’t anything particularly inspiring about the technology or the ways Google told us we could use it.

To be sure, Doom was an original game that borrowed from previous works, but built on those influences to create something new and lasting. These AI tools don’t have – and never will have – the ingenuity needed to make something with Doom’s staying power. Instead, they just give us back copies of things that have already been made, covered in a file A strange and frightening sheen.

For more from Google I/O 2026, here’s what to know Google Project Halo And what do you know about him? Ask YouTube.