Call of Duty admits it's using generative AI to 'help develop some in-game assets', and suddenly all those poorly made calling cards make sense

A zombie santa with six fingers leaps at the screen. — (Image credit: Activision)

After months of players calling foul of suspected AI art in Call of Duty, Activision has admitted it's using generative AI to make assets for its billion-dollar franchise. This revelation comes not from a formal statement issued by the company, but a Valve-mandated AI disclosure now found at the bottom of the Call of Duty Steam page (as spotted by CharlieIntel):

"Our team uses generative AI tools to help develop some in game assets," the disclosure reads.

For some time now, Call of Duty players have suspected that Activision is using AI to generate cosmetics in Modern Warfare 3 and Black Ops 6. Last year, a Wired report called out a calling card included in the $15 "Yokai's Wrath" bundle. Then in the weeks after Black Ops 6's historically successful launch, players noticed obvious signs of generative AI in holiday-themed loading screen (notice the six-fingered zombie), another hand with perhaps too many digits promoting Zombies Gobblegum, and several glaring oddities with the sexy "Hard Breakup" calling card.

Activision has not specified if it's using generative AI to produce the 2D art in loading screens or promotional calling cards, but the Steam page disclosure makes the claims easier to believe. It's one thing to phone in the loading screen for a Christmas mode, but it'd be another to slip generated art into a paid cosmetic bundle, or in the case of Hard Breakup, ask players to grind for hours to unlock AI slop.

"Disappointingly, I just grinded for an AI generated calling card," wrote Reddit user Poodonkus in December. "I had heard of a cool pin-up style calling card for completing this challenge, but I wasn't expecting to find out after trying to figure out what was supposed to be on her belt (surprise, just shapeless artifacts of a neural network image generator), that there are glaring hallmarks of an unrefined AI-generated image."

hard breakup calling card — (Image credit: Activision Blizzard via Poodonkus on Reddit)

I'll be the first to admit I've stared at the details of an image long enough to be convinced it's AI when it's probably not, but I'm with Poodonkus on this one. What's going on with this lady's hair, and why does her right sleeve have a buckle that fades into nothingness?

"Remake this calling card, hell trace it if you have to. But give us players more respect than this," Poodonkus concluded.

call of duty steam page — (Image credit: Valve)

It's worth noting that, other than the Yokai's Wrath bundle sold last year, these suspected AI art pieces are non-paid promotional materials, or a profile banner that you can earn for free. It's also worth noting that Activision-Blizzard laid off 1,900 humans in 2023.

PC Gamer has reached out to Activision to confirm whether or not any of the art mentioned in this article is AI-generated and will update if an answer comes in.

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Morgan has been writing for PC Gamer since 2018, first as a freelancer and currently as a staff writer. He has also appeared on Polygon, Kotaku, Fanbyte, and PCGamesN. Before freelancing, he spent most of high school and all of college writing at small gaming sites that didn't pay him. He's very happy to have a real job now. Morgan is a beat writer following the latest and greatest shooters and the communities that play them. He also writes general news, reviews, features, the occasional guide, and bad jokes in Slack. Twist his arm, and he'll even write about a boring strategy game. Please don't, though.

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