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New Xbox CEO Asha Sharma addresses ‘not a real gamer’ backlash: ‘I don’t pretend to be the best gamer’
Asha Sharma, the newly appointed CEO of Xbox, got candid about her lack of gaming experience after being criticised for not being a ‘real gamer’.
Asha Sharma, the newly appointed CEO of Xbox, got candid about her lack of gaming experience after being criticised for not being a ‘real gamer’. For some context, Sharma was named Executive Vice President and Chief Executive of Microsoft’s gaming division earlier this month, making her the new boss at Xbox.
Sharma replaced veteran Xbox chief Phil Spencer, but the appointment proved controversial among a section of the internet which felt that she does not have enough ‘gaming cred’ to make her a worthy successor to Spencer.
(Also read: First note from Asha Sharma to her team: New Xbox boss says no ‘soulless AI slop’ as she shares her vision for future)
Is AI writing Asha Sharma’s posts?
The Indian-American Xbox executive has been steadily replying to critics on X (formerly Twitter) — but has been accused of using AI to craft her replies.
She also shared her Xbox gamertag — AMRAHSAHSA — which allows users to go through her recent gaming history. It appears that she unlocked her first achievement only last month.
In her latest response to IGN Senior Executive Editor Ryan McCaffrey, Sharma again acknowledged her lack of experience while defending herself against accusations of AI writing her posts.
“Do I believe that AI is writing Asha Sharma's posts? No,” IGN’s Ryan McCaffrey posted on X.
“Do I believe that an experienced gamer on the Xbox team may be helping her sound more like a "real gamer" with her social replies? Yes. Do I think it's a bad idea for her to try and fake this? YES,” he concluded.
Asha Sharma responds
Responding to McCaffrey, Sharma claimed that she is writing her own posts, without help from AI or more experienced gamers.
“I agree. Faking would be a terrible idea and wouldn’t work. I also didn't expect my gamertag to blowup and the reality is more boring. I created it recently to learn and understand this world,” she said.
Sharma said she had been using a shared family account, which meant a wide range of games and achievements showed up in the history. She said that particular issue had been fixed — “Fixed that this weekend and everyone is only playing on their own GTs,” the Microsoft executive wrote.
Finally, she said that she understood where the criticisms were coming from.
“But I get where this is coming from. I don’t pretend to be the best gamer and even though I’m playing, that’s still not my goal. My focus is to make Xbox the best place to play, return to our roots, ship great things, and become stronger for the future,” she said.
“And yes, I’m writing my own posts,” Sharma concluded.
