Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Launches With AI Art, Players Embarrassed

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 launched this week, and for what usually feels like one of the biggest releases of the year, sentiment has been rather mixed this time around.

Two days after launch, the game is sitting at 42% positive reviews on Steam at the time of writing, with many negative reviews citing bad map design and poor performance as major issues.

However, another common complaint that appears in many player reviews of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is the presence of AI-generated art for many of its in-game assets.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 appears to be using AI generated art for its calling cards, which are basically icons and images which appear next to your name in online lobbies.

Indeed, from looking at some of these cards we can see that many of these images do look as if they’re AI generated. The Reeled In card, for example, uses the Studio Ghibli filter and features a character with six fingers on their hand.

Although we haven’t been able to verify the exact amount of AI generated images in the game yet, one player claims that “almost every” single calling card that you unlock from the campaign and endgame is using AI generated imagery. So, it doesn’t just appear to be one or two cards, but rather a large majority of them.

Activision and Treyarch respond to AI generated art reaction

Treyarch has admitted its use of AI generated assets in Black Ops 7 with the following disclaimer available on the Steam store page: “Our team uses generative AI tools to help develop some in game assets.”

Activision also provided a statement to XboxEra regarding its use of AI generative tools, saying: “Like so many around the world, we use a variety of digital tools, including AI tools, to empower and support our teams to create the best gaming experiences possible for our players. Our creative process continues to be led by the talented individuals in our studios.”

The players aren’t having it, though.

“It honestly sucks that they have to basically use AI because Treyarch specifically has some amazing artists working at the studio,” reads one comment from a player on the Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Reddit page.

“No game that costs $70 god damn dollars should have any excuse for a.i. generated content,” reads another comment.

“I don't get it. What % of the budget of this game is going towards the calling cards art? Like 0.0001%? Is it worth the bad PR instead of just getting some artist you have on staff or paying a few grand for an artist to draw some of these?” reads a third comment.