Turns out even the Sega Dreamcast isn't safe from the horrors of AI, as the tech appears to be messing with promotional keychains. While engaging in the usual social media doom-scrolling, my thumb came to a halt upon seeing a bastardized version of the retro console, its controller, and VMU, all of which featured garbled text and weird button glyphs.
Currently live at the Sega Shop, the offending Anime Expo Dreamcast keychains in question are actually really cute. They pay homage to the publisher's last best retro console contender, its accompanying controller, and a VMU with a Chao sprite from Sonic Adventure. That's enough to sell me on what would be an excellent collectable for my Sega collection had AI not destroyed the details.
At a glance, you might not realise anything is wrong with these Dreamcast keychains. Upon zooming into Sega's logo, though, it becomes apparent that it's not using real letters, instead wearing a vague cursive-shaped line that has been altered by AI. The buttons on the controller are particularly offensive, with the "B" looking more like a messy circle.
Upon auditing the site for other instances, I found that most of the accessories featured in the Anime Expo range and the general store weren't altered by AI. There's even another Dreamcast keychain that, despite using heavy grain, appears to be an image with untouched details. There is one other offender, though, and it's a set of Crazy Tazi air fresheners that have already flagged for gen AI shenanigans.
Previously highlighted by Danny8bit on X, the Crazy Tazi air fresheners in question suffer from the same garbled text as the Dreamcast keychains. In an attempt to replicate the issues, the site SEGAbits ran the art through gen AI tools and ended up with the same sort of image after using real artwork. This is all neatly summarized in a Time Extension report from last month, and it gives me hope that AI isn't directly making the artwork for the merch.
It appears that the issue lies with Sega taking real product images and using AI to place them on specific backdrops. By doing so, the apparent tools are doing more than just cutting out objects and popping them on top of an orange background, or hanging them from a car mirror in the case of the Crazy Taxi air fresheners, resulting in undesired alterations to details AI simply can't regenerate.
aight man https://t.co/mXLUkTRfOS pic.twitter.com/dSLJbTFFG0June 29, 2026
I'd be appalled if the above Dreamcast keychains show up IRL with AI-generated details, and I do suspect these are "placeholders". That's no real excuse, but it is one being increasingly used regarding game assets during development. Crazy Taxi: World Tour has already come under scrutiny for seemingly using the tech, so I'm hoping a legendary gaming brand I care deeply about isn't about to fall down a big artificial slop rabbit hole.
Take a peek at the best retro controllers for new gamepads with a classic feel.
