AI art feels like a turning point in design and branding not just in terms of tech but also in company attitudes. It increasingly seems that brands of all kinds just don't care about how bad AI art looks nor about the backlash it provokes among their customers.
After the horror of the Coca-Cola AI Christmas ad, Activision is the latest brand to ruin the festive season with apparent AI slop. After the appearance of an AI-looking zombie Santa in the Call of Duty Black Ops 6 Necrocalus screen in the Season 1 Reloaded update, fans have dug deeper and unearthed all manner of potentially AI-generated content in the game, while Activision – and Steam – have remained shtum.
While Activision has not confirmed or denied it, fans deemed the CoD Black Ops 6 zombie Santa Claus to look suspiciously AI due to unnatural forms and the (un)dead giveaway of a six-fingered hand. The image was followed by another six-digit hand that also looked clearly AI-generated.
"The hand, the balls, and the random smoke is all completely disjointed," one person noted on X. Since then, gamers have been listing a litany of suspect assets in the game. One post on Reddit has picked up over 1,000 comments and over 8,000 upvotes.
"It's very clear that the game is full of AI, but are you aware that over 50 per cent of 2d art are AI checked?" the user wrote. "This alone is fucked, but the fact the the zombies crew is almost fully recasted because they want to use AI to replicate the actors fucking voices so they can STOP PAYING THEM. Upon playing citadelle des morts, you can hear the Sam trial recast sounds like a cheap actor who can't sound German if the world depended on it. They would rather save 2 percent of their yearly income than hiring real talented artists and retaining their iconic voice actors."
Amid the 6 fingered Santa Controversy, I looked into some loading screens included in PAID bundles… from r/CODZombies
People are also unhappy about Steam's stance on the matter. It allows developers to use AI in their games but requires them to disclose it to potential customers. But Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has no such disclaimer on its Steam page, which has prompted claims that it's been given special treatment. The only mentions of AI appear in the reviews, which are packed with criticism of alleged AI content.
It seems that developers like Activision, and more general brands, including giants like Coca-Cola, think that the inevitable backlash against their use of AI art won't translate into enough lost revenue to detract from the savings achieved. The risk is that this attitude will erode the brand equity they've built up over the years. If the brands with the biggest budgets are now doing things on the cheap, why stick with them?
"Jokes on them, already uninstalled," one person wrote on Reddit. But it will need enough people to take that attitude for Activision to care.
