Activision Blizzard, among other big-name video game companies, is reportedly already using generative AI to create some of the world's biggest games.
Generative AI has been a scolding hot topic for well over a year now, with developers from across the industry speaking out against the tool's potentially harmful impact on job security, human creativity, and the ways it can be used to make unquestionably unethical content like deepfake porn mods.
But a new report from Wired paints a picture of an industry that has already quietly accepted the technology, at least in some major AAA studios. Speaking to Wired, one anonymous source who once worked at the Call of Duty publisher claims that the company promised generative AI would only be used for concept art and other materials that wouldn't make their way into the final game. However, the article claims that by the end of the year, Activision was already selling AI-generated skins in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 via the Yokai's Wraith bundle.
"Half the environment art team" was also cut from the Overwatch 2 team, according to former Blizzard artist Lucas Annunziata at the time, though it's unclear if the talented artists working on the hero shooter have the same AI mandate, too.
As the Wired investigation notes, none of the developers who came forward were in favor of using generative AI. The push to use the technology almost always comes from the executive level, who sees cheaper costs and "good enough" art as acceptable.
