Please tell me Pokémon isn't using AI art

Niantic neither confirmed nor denied the allegations when it was accused of using AI art to promote Pokémon Go Adventures Abound a couple of years ago, but you would think The Pokémon Company would have taken note of the outcry among fans. Two years later, now it's been accused directly of using AI for a piece of art, and it will be disappointing if it's true.

Fans think they have spotted tell-tale signs of generative AI in imagery promoting the Pokémon Astronomical Observatory museum exhibit in Japan. It's only the background that's being questioned, but that could be the start of a slippery slope.

The Pokémon Astronomical Observatory is a touring exhibition about the cosmos that will visit four venues, starting at Sagamihara City Museum on 1 November. At first glance, the promotional artwork looks perfect, with Pikachu (fortunately not the Pikachu with breasts that Nintendo wanted) kitted out as an astronomer, studying the constellations as Cosmog floats above.

Fans agree that the character art is spot on, but some have noticed some odd details in the background. Pokémon historian and archivist Lewtwo has taken to X to point out anomalies in the drawing of the observatory. It appears to have a burning furnace inside it, and some of the structural lines of the building seem to disappear.

"Given that the rest of the piece is totally fine and actually has plenty hallmarks of human-made work when super zoomed in (note the sharp noise brush around Jirachi's eyes) this isn't related to the skill of the foreground artist," one person notes on X.

It reminds me of the Fantastic Four artwork controversy earlier in the year. The evidence isn't conclusive, and The Pokémon Company hasn't responded, but the controversy is another example of how fans are finding it hard to enjoy digital artwork anymore without picking it apart for signs of AI. Soon we'll need a 'not AI' tag to certify content that's 100% human made.

For more of this week's AI news, see what's new in GPT-5 and Google's controversial Gemini AI Storybook generator.