With release Call of Duty: Black Ops 7impatient fans have criticized Activision for in-game calling cards that appear to have been created using generative artificial intelligence.
The calling cards in question are from the Jack of All Trades campaign challenges, as well as two specific calling cards in the final challenges of the Embrace of Nightmare campaign. To members of the Call of Duty community, these maps appear similar to the AI Studio Ghibli recreations that have been circulating online for the past few months.
Activision said artificial intelligence was used in the development of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. game page on Steam. The obligatory disclaimer notes: “Our team uses generative AI tools to help develop some game assets.” While the disclaimer does not specify which assets were created using AI, players believe these calling cards are a clear example.
These business cards are distributed on the Internet as on social networks and also game page on Reddit. Reactions have been mixed, with some outraged by the apparent use of AI in a full-fledged video game. Let's take the user Commercial_Pirate501.who wrote: “It was $96 in my country and over $130 for the Vault Edition lol. Personally I like this game, but it's [a] a ridiculous amount of money for a game with tons of AI-generated content.”
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Another Reddit user, Loqh9 expressed his thoughts more succinctlywriting: “Damn this is f*cking awful.”
On the other hand, others do not care about the possible use of AI. For example, you have M3Festof1l on Xwho commented: “It looks normal. I don't care who or what created the image as long as it looks normal.” Of course, these are just a few opinions in a larger discussion about both the use of AI in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and game development in general.
Eurogamer reached out to Activision to find out whether these and other calling cards were created using generative artificial intelligence.
Earlier this year Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said “Microsoft is thriving” after the company laid off 9,000 employees as it redoubles its efforts to develop artificial intelligence.. Microsoft previously acquired Activision Blizzard at the end of 2023..
