The excuse for Call of Duty's AI controversy is a bit ridiculous

The six-fingered zombie Santa in Call of Duty Black Ops 6's Season 1 Reloaded update became infamous as an example of how not to use AI in video game design. It was pilloried online, with gamers blasting the artwork as "unacceptable" – and yet it's still in the game, apparently.

It wasn't the first time CoD had faced controversy over AI use, and gamers soon started picking out other suspect assets, making us fear the worst for the upcoming Black Ops 7. Now we finally have the closest thing yet to an explanation from the game's developer Treyarch. But the excuse isn't very convincing.

In an interview with IGN, Miles Leslie, Treyarch's Associate Creative Director, stood by the developer's use of AI and insisted that while it uses generative AI tools to streamline game development, "none of that goes in-game."

So what happened with the festive zombie?

"And then you're going to say, ‘Yeah, but it has,'" Miles continued. "I'll say it has by accident. And that was never the intention. We've come out and been very clear that we use these as tools to help the team, but they do not replace any of the fantastic team members we have that are doing the final touches and building that content to put it in the game."

Placeholder assets getting accidentally left in a game wouldn't surprise me that much – just see the controversy over the allegedly stolen art in Marathon. But can it be an accident that it's still there eight months later?

When pushed on why the image hadn't been removed, Miles was unsure. “Yeah, good question," he said. "Not my department, but I know that the team is actively looking at that stuff, making sure that it is not shipped, and how we fix it.”

The use of AI in video game development is growing rapidly. Last month, a report found that the number of games on Steam that disclose the use of generative AI rose by 700% in a year, from around 1,000 to almost 8,000 now. That's already 7 per cent of the whole Steam library.

Amid layoffs at some major studios, the increasing take up of AI tools is controversial. But the potential applications for generative AI are so broad that it's generating discussion over what AI is acceptable in video games and what isn't.

Blatantly AI-generated art is one application that a lot of gamers have set as a line in the sand, whether because of ethics or just because it looks bad and suggests the developer doesn't care about the product. Treyarch should maybe streamline its followup processes if it really found its way into Black Ops 6 by accident.