Activision finally admits to using AI & CoD players aren’t surprised at all

Activision has finally admitted to using AI-generated content in its games and Call of Duty players aren’t the least bit surprised.

In the live-service era, the CoD store is constantly being updated with new cosmetics. On a near-weekly basis, you’ll find all manner of wild and wacky Operator skins, weapon charms, and plenty more in between for players to either unlock or purchase with real money.

With high-profile collaborations factored in too, along with jam-packed seasonal updates, there’s always plenty of work to be done. And while you’d think the many thousands of human employees under the publishing juggernaut would be assigned the work, that’s now officially not the case in all instances.

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After years of suspicions from the CoD community, it’s now been confirmed by Activision directly that AI-generated content has indeed been featured throughout the FPS franchise.

Steam

Steam now requires disclosure of AI-generated content, and Activision has obliged with Black Ops 6’s store page.

Activision confirms CoD uses AI-generated content

Upon visiting the Black Ops 6 Steam page, fans will notice a new change. Activision has now been forced to disclose its use of Artificial Intelligence in the game’s creation.

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“Our team uses generative AI tools to help develop some in game assets,” Activision said in a statement provided to the platform.

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At the time of writing, it’s unclear the extent of AI’s utilization, nor what assets the statement could be referring to. This could mean anything from foliage in the background of a campaign mission to weapon skins across multiplayer and Warzone. Regardless, we now know for certain AI has been employed to some degree.

Activision

This Black Ops 6 Loading Screen caused a stir on social media when fans spotted a sixth finger.

This hasn’t come as a huge surprise to the CoD community given speculation has been rampant in recent years. In fact, Black Ops 6 came under fire just weeks ago when a holiday-themed reward was called out for alleged AI use. In this particular Loading Screen cosmetic, a Zombified Santa just so happened to have six fingers, for some reason.

Related

CoD’s Squid Game Operator has exact same voice lines as an old skin

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Not only that, but even the logo for a new Zombies map in Season 2 was called into question when an AI detector tool claimed it had a high chance of being made by an algorithm and not a real human.

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“Yeah no sh*t,” one player said in response to CharlieIntel’s tweet on the new Steam page update, clearly not surprised. “We could tell LMAO,” another joked. “Thank God they confirmed, it was so hard to tell,” another said sarcastically.

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Back in 2024, WIRED reported on the matter, their investigation alleging Activision Blizzard began the process of implementing AI tools in its game development pipelines from as early as 2023.

By July 2023, the publisher had allegedly “approved the use of certain generative AI tools in creating concept art and marketing materials.”

At the end of that same year, they claimed the situation had evolved, as by that point, Activision had supposedly sold its first AI-generated cosmetics in Modern Warfare 3’s store.

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AI-generated content is indeed confirmed to feature in Black Ops 6, though to what extent remains unclear.

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