Activision admitted using generative AI in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 due to Steam’s recent policy on AI use. Read to learn more on Call of Duty’s usage of AI and the new AI model Xbox has introduced.
Activision Admits Using Generative AI For Black Ops 6 In-Game Assets
Steam Policy Forced Activision To Reveal Its AI Use for Call of Duty
Call of Duty developer Activision has now broken its silence regarding the company’s use of generative AI to develop assets for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (BO6). Fans have long speculated that Call of Duty has been using AI-generated assets for the game due to the unnatural look of its art and cosmetics.
Activision has admitted this on BO6’s Steam page, which now includes a disclaimer that states “Our team uses generative AI tools to help develop some in-game assets.” This comes after Steam changed its policy regarding the use of AI-generated content in games posted on its page, forcing developers to disclose AI usage in their game descriptions.
Although Activision can legally use AI to create in-game assets, fans are worried about the company’s lack of transparency. This may also affect future updates and cosmetics they may produce as fans may think twice about their purchase possibly made using generative AI, although Bo6 has yet to confirm where they use AI specifically.
Call of Duty’s Different Uses of AI
Although the usage of AI has been a divisive topic among the game development community, Call of Duty has used AI as a tool to make their games better. Before the release of BO6, Activision announced that they would use AI to help identify cheaters in the game, which the community supported.
However, players have concerns regarding their use of AI for in-game assets and art, especially from a AAA company that can allocate funds for actual artists to work on these assets. Recently, Activision was accused by the community of using AI on BO6’s The Tomb Zombies Map announcement, where a fan tried to use a third-party AI detection tool on The Tomb logo, which turned out to be 93% likely AI-generated.
Despite Activision’s admission of using AI for BO6, their statement remained vague and unclear for fans. People are still on the fence regarding this as Activision tried their best to keep their silence on the issue even with the community previously pointing out evidence that suggest otherwise.
Xbox Will Have A Catalog of Games Using Generative AI
Xbox has embraced AI for game development with the recent announcement of their new generative AI model Muse. Microsoft posted on its website on February 19, 2025 the introduction of their first generative AI model designed for gameplay ideation.
Microsoft Senior Principal Research Manager Katja Hofmann shared their latest research with the introduction of Muse, “a generative AI model of a video game that can generate game visuals, controller actions, or both.” According to Hofmann, the research will focus on “exploring the capabilities that models like Muse need to effectively support human creatives.”
In an interview with Dwarkesh Podcast on February 19, 2025, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella gave his insights on the concept of Muse. “It’s just very cool… one thing that we wanted to go after was, using gameplay data, can you actually generate games that are both consistent and then have the ability to generate the diversity of what that game represents and then are persistent to user mods, right? So that’s what this is,” he said.
Nadella revealed, “We’re going to have a catalog of games soon that we will start using these models, or we’re going to train these models to generate, and then start playing them.” Regardless of the ongoing criticism on the use of AI, Microsoft looks to push further their development of games using it. With the introduction of Muse, games may look different with the implementation of generative AI.
Source:
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Steam Page
Microsoft AI Model Muse
Microsoft CEO Interview on Dwarkesh Podcast
