Activision Officially Acknowledges the Use of Generative AI in Call of Duty

Activision has revealed that generative AI has been used for some of Call of Duty’s content. The announcement was made following Steam’s latest AI label rule to help gamers filter out games using the controversial technology.
On Tuesday, February 25, CharlieIntel shared a screenshot from Call of Duty Steam’s page, which now contains an AI label according to the platform’s new rule.
AI disclosure on Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Steam page. Source: CharlieIntel
Activision clearly mentions on Steam, “Our team uses generative AI tools to help develop some in-game assets.”
Call of Duty is Activision’s signature project, and its huge team of developers works on seasonal updates and high-level collaborations. While one expects from such a popular project with enough resources, especially the creativity of people working on it from scratch, the game has failed to fulfill this expectation.
Call of Duty players were not surprised by the AI label.
Activision hasn’t specified where AI has been used in COD. However, past claims made by players are now easier to believe.
The COD players weren’t surprised that the game used generative AI, as they had already pointed out AI hints in Modern Warfare 3 and Black Ops 6.
Six fingered Zombie Santa art in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Christmas update.
One user replied under the X post, “We could tell lmao this loading screen had 6 fingers,” referencing the Santa Claus zombie illustration used in the last Christmas update. Apart from the sixth finger, Santa’s teeth and mustache were also scrutinized for being AI-generated.
A similar “AI slop” case was spotted in another COD graphic of a hand wearing a glove holding Gobblegum with six fingers and a thumb.
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In a December Reddit post, a player named Poodkonkus shared, “Disappointingly, I just grinded for an AI-generated calling card.” The card gave away hints of AI generation with “shapeless artifacts” on the character’s belt. Moreover, the details of her sleeve were left unrefined.
“Hard Breakup” calling card in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 showing unrefined details. Source: Reddit
Another Reddit post by the user spareiscooked shared, “It’s very clear that the game is full of AI, but are you aware that over 50 percent of 2d art are AI checked.” The player said this is inexcusable as the studios are “feeding us slop because they want to pay their millionaire executives a little bit more.”
Other than the graphics, Activision has previously used AI and ML-based tools for the moderation of COD’s in-game text and voice chat. Moreover, the Ricochet anti-cheat system also uses AI systems for training and improving the process of detecting cheaters.
Microsoft will be making generative AI more common in future projects.
Microsoft, which is also Activision’s parent company, introduced “Muse,” a generative AI model, earlier this week. The AI model is specially built to assist developers in generating “game visuals, controller actions, or both.”
Nadella expressed his excitement and compared Muse with other AI models like ChatGPT.
Satya Nadella, CEO and Chairman of the company said in a podcast with Dwarkesh Patel that Microsoft is planning a line of gaming projects that will use generative AI. He said, “We’re going to have a catalog of games soon that we will start using these models, or we’re going to train these models to generate and then start playing them.”
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Developer pushback with “No Gen AI” seal
Many developers were skeptical about Muse’s launch. Some worried that AI would lead to more layoffs, while others believed that it could never match the details of human creativity.
“No Gen AI” seal for indie game developers. Source: BlueSky @kanaratron.bsky.social
Recently, Polygon Treehouse creative director Alex Kanaris—Sotiriou shared a “No Gen AI” seal on Bluesky for indie game developers to use on their Steam pages to make their games more appealing to gamers who prefer entirely human-developed games.
He also demonstrated how the seal was designed to fit into the Awards section of Steam’s store page.
Sotiriou said, “It’s an honor-based system,” and “There’s no body to apply to or to police usage.” He also mentioned that the Nintendo Seal of Quality originally inspired the design.
Not all gamers oppose AI in game development, as per a recent YouGov survey. The survey data shows that 62% of British gamers find AI to be a tool to improve NPC interactions in future games. However, it’s apparent that players won’t enjoy the sloppiness of AI generation.
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