Apparently it’s time to promote indie games with AI-generated crap. A Microsoft Twitter account recently posted low-effort, high-energy artwork promoting indie games on the Xbox, which was later deleted after being mocked by fans and developers alike.
“Walking in an Indie Wonderlaaand,” the ID@Xbox account tweeted on December 27th. “What were your favorite indie games of the year?” The post was accompanied by an AI-generated image of kids sledding down a hill with a giant green Xbox logo on it.
At first glance it looked harmless, but a second or third look immediately revealed tell-tale AI anomalies, like children maneuvering their sleds with cranks attached to nothing and fishing in the snow for presents with strange black tendrils. The upper lip of a man playing a gaming handheld at the top center of the image has been replaced with teeth. A child jumping through the snow appears to have a mustache. Things looked really bad considering that ID@Xbox is supposed to be the human team within the mega-corporation, advocating for individual developers and small independent teams.
“Bro, Xbox isn’t using Ayy-Eye to promote indie developers.” wrote Pixel artist TAHK0. “Nothing says ‘we don’t care about indie developers’ like the use of AI.” wrote Artist NecroKuma3. “If you can’t hire an artist to promote it, I highly doubt you’ll do it with independent creators.” The company quietly deleted the post overnight without acknowledging the backlash. Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
While it may seem like a given not to publish half-assed AI art to promote artists, we’re seeing more and more companies doing this lately. There was that AI-generated advertising image for Amazon Stand out TV show, AI-generated arts funding a new Pokémon GO Eventand even Ubisoft accounts representing offices where employees were recently laid off AI generated Assassin’s Creed Art.
When these things first happened it felt shitty, but there was little at stake. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that companies are taking the same approach to AI art as they do to any other advancement in the Internet age, assuming that people will complain at first, but eventually get fed up and move on to being angry about something else. Cook the frog slowly enough, and eventually he won’t realize that he has 11 fingers, 13 toes, and strange thin wires coming out of his back.
Read more: AI creating “art” is an ethical and copyright nightmare
As a cheerleader for AI technologyHowever, Microsoft’s role in this is particularly egregious. The company already is Promote tools for AI-generated content in games, encouraging all 20 Bing users to play around with its AI art tools. It doesn’t matter that no one is really sure how to make money with the technology. or whether it is even legal. If it can replace human creativity with predictable fluctuations and reduce headcount, it must be a win-win.
According to the MIT Technology ReviewEach AI-generated image requires as much energy as an entire smartphone charge. And Microsoft’s own internal environmental report blamed technology an increase of 34 percent in its water consumption to cool all the racks of computing power required, among other things, to enable users to do so Shit post about Kirby on 9/11. As immortality Match director Sam Barlow Put it following the AI-generated ID@Xbox post: “Really impressive that just as we were finally starting to address the climate emergency, we came up with stupid ways to undo all our progress.”
