Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is out today, and if you thought we were going to make it through the day without an AI-generated art scandal, I am here to tell you, hoo boy, you're living in the wrong year. I can't say with 100% certainty that there is generative AI art in Black Ops 7, but an awful lot of fans sure think there is, and with good reason.
Images of what people believe to be AI-generated art assets have been appearing all over social media and Reddit, with complaints focusing primarily on calling card images because of their overt Studio Ghibli styling. AI-generated Ghibli images have been all the rage since earlier this year: In March, for instance, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman swapped his profile picture on X for a Ghibli-style portrait that remains there to this day, despite Japan's largest manga publisher recently accusing OpenAI of "trampling on the dignity of artists" with its Sora 2 video app.
