Call of Duty, Activision’s golden egg franchise, is making headlines again as it is the subject of a controversy that is causing both anger among players and serious concerns.
Slowly but surely, the use of artificial intelligence is spreading. Major video game players are showing great interest in it, but not without expressing concerns. At Activision, the thing is already well established, especially on the very lucrative Call of Duty license. And it was precisely to maximize this aspect of the franchise that the American giant made a controversial decision.
AI in the sights of Activision and Call of Duty
Artificial intelligence is a tool that arouses excitement in some and concern in others. On the one hand, it is a way to reduce costs and production time for certain tedious tasks or creations. On the other hand, its use raises serious questions about its ethical aspect (deep fakes, identity theft). Can it really replace real people, given their still limited relevance without human moderation?
In particular, a former Activision employee who worked on Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 raised the alarm. He took it upon himself to share with WIRED emails from Activision that showed a great interest in artificial intelligence. These date back to 2023. The American ogre obviously did not wait long to move from mere curiosity to concrete application. At the end of the same year, this Call of Duty work would have received its first paid skin, partially created by AI. ” I remember managers boasting about using tools like Midjourney to optimize production times
Paid skins created using AI do not work
Many employees who worked on creating the very lucrative paid skins for Call of Duty would also have been employed on a regular basis. encouraged » Leverage artificial intelligence. It should be noted that it is not capable of creating such skins on its own… yet. Human intervention remains necessary, at least given the still limited capabilities of tools like Midjourney. However, some users noticed that the design of some recent paid skins left something to be desired, suggesting that they were developed with the help of some kind of AI.
While Sony and Naughty Dog have borne the brunt of a heated controversy over their desire to use artificial intelligence in the future, it’s not surprising that Activision and Call of Duty have also taken turns sweating. But will this be enough to motivate Activision to revisit its copy, or is the lure of profit too great? Should we expect AI in one form or another to be involved in Call of Duty Black Ops 6 as well, to the detriment of the flesh-and-blood staff? Only time will tell.
Source : WIRED
