AI—that is, specifically, generative AI—is a bit of a nightmare for just about any creative industry. While I've personally seen no compelling evidence that AI-generated sludge comes even close to replacing the people-made stuff (and is inherently fuelled by that hard work, anyway) that doesn't mean crap under the weight of hype-huffing execs who've spied an opportunity to pay fewer people less money.
As a recent, in-depth report by Wired's Brian Merchant has revealed, the other shoe has already dropped. Historic layoffs aside, an anonymous artist operating under the pseudonym Noah "because he fears retribution" alleged to Wired that Activision has, in fact, already been selling you AI-slop in the form of Yokai's Wrath, which is currently priced at 1,500 COD Points.
Naturally, you can only buy 2,000, not 1,500, points from the store for $19.99, but some quick napkin maths places the skin's 'value' at around $15.00. It's probably just confirmation bias, but my eyebrow raises all the way off my head at this loading screen included in the bundle—not just because of the glossy photorealism and bizarre studio lighting (in a burning building, somehow) but because the loading screen itself doesn't appear to relate to the 3D skin in any way beyond being a demon mask—the art featured therein isn't the same design at all.
"A lot of 2D artists were laid off" at Activision in 2023, Noah remarks, before alleging that those who remained were "forced to use AI to aid in their work". The report then goes on to state that mandatory sign-ups for AI training are commonplace. Despite this, however, Noah says Activision has already "started outsourcing lots of 3D art assets, almost all of the art", with the team itself struggling to meet new deadlines with their post-layoff numbers. "In-house art couldn't keep up."
Another anonymous veteran developer and artist, going under the name Violet for the purposes of the report, comments: "Why get a bunch of expensive concept artists or designs when you can get an art director to give some bad directions to an AI and get stuff that’s good enough, really fast—and get a few artists to clean it up?
"You’ll probably never see which part is using AI in what, but you know it’s there."
It's not necessarily all doom and gloom, though—Blizzard is limiting itself to in-house tools, and its employees recently formed a union 500 people strong, hopefully protecting them against similar tactics. Like a lot of new inventions, generative AI certainly has its uses, handling senseless grunt work or tackling areas where automation is pointless. Weaponized as a sort of advanced procedural generation, the tech seems to be both useful and mostly harmless—of course, it's not being wielded in that way. As Violet herself puts it: "AI isn't bad in and of itself, it's bad when the end goal is to maximise profits."
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