Activision Blizzard is reportedly already making games with AI, and quietly sold an AI-generated microtransaction in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

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. 

Another anonymous source told the site that “a lot of 2D artists were laid off” as part of Microsoft’s wider cuts, which left almost 2,000 employees out of a job. “Remaining concept artists were then forced to use AI to aid their work,” the source continues, and have since been made to sign up for training sessions on how to use AI tools. That’s because, for now, 2D art assets are easier for AI to conjure up, meaning concept artists, illustrators, graphic designers, and more jobs are all at higher risk. 

“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. 

Rachael Cross, a one-time concept artist at Riot Games, told the site that the AI problem is “emblematic of a much larger issue” around the way game workers are treated. After looking at the endless list of mass layoffs and studio closures in recent months, it would be hard to argue with her. 

Thankfully, video game studios across the industry are unionizing – Starfield and the Elder Scrolls 6 makers at Bethesda Game Studios created one of the largest cross-department unions in the industry just last week, for example. The Writers Guild of America successfully combated the issue last year when it organized to make sure Hollywood studios couldn’t use AI without a screenwriter’s permission.

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