The Activision Leaks Came True, Key Creatives Are Quitting

[@BellularNews]

Go to ground.news/Bellular for 50% off unlimited access with the Vantage Plan - the best deal of the year for my subscribers and only available for a limited time! Sponsored by Ground.

[@thelightsilent]

I wouldnt trust this echo chamber service thats trying to push far left agendas.

[@thelightsilent]

*Jim Sterling

[@cerebrix]

I don't have $50 bucks right now

[@rumplstiltztinkerstein]

I don't get the argument about Moore's law. Just look at the size of GPUs. Performance of games is growing like 10-20% every year at maximum instead of what it was 20 years ago. There is very little difference between a high graphics game of 5 years ago and today.

[@zxcaaq]

why are you not covering the fact that they're allowed to publish on steam even thougn they clearly use AI and indie ai games get taken down?? nepotism.

[@SpinDlsc]

I guess even with Bobby out of the picture, Activision will always be the same. Leadership in that company needs to be gutted.

[@SimuLord]

Literally? I mean, that's a bit harsh, but I'm not outraged if you aren't.

[@MrJay_White]

the company needs to be dismantled

[@PureBassO]

@@SpinDlsc Microsoft bought them for the income not to change thing's

[@MrJay_White]

@@SimuLord not harsh at all. activision are copyright trolls sitting on the royalties of the back catalogue, refusing to innovate, and waiting to delete the cultural heritage of all the material they decided they anly care about so fart as making sure nobody else can build on it. the background bloat of all that mneans they refuse to hire capable creators while wasting hundreds of millions on useless managment salleries that bloats the costs of the cheap rushed games they are barely able to create due to not having capable creative and productive staff.

[@annekedebruyn7797]

New leadership would look at the numbers being generated and follow in the same direction. This has been happening for a few years now in the VFX industry.

[@bunnywae]

With the gaming Industry slowly turning into an AI slop garbage dump, I can finally stop buying new games and instead go through my backlog after years of hoarding games from sales! I thought I had to wait until retirement.

[@Gabjnr07]

The industry will die when Japanese developers start using AI instead of real talent

[@SimuLord]

I've just largely stopped playing games or consuming entertainment in general made in the "advanced" Western world. Plenty of great stuff in former Soviet bloc countries and in East Asia and in obscure corners of the world. Anywhere there's an indie dev with a computer and a turnkey game engine, there's a reason to keep expecting good games. And if the "industry" goes full 1983? I'll play a dirge on the world's smallest violin.

[@itachi93674]

The older I get almost 30 the less time I have to play. Probably the last two games I’ll buy is GTA6 and Final Fantasy 7 part 3. Right now I’m enjoying Dragon Age origins

[@glock-kay]

Sounds like a win to me

[@robertdadra9767]

This is the way honestly.

[@Concerned502]

"how could a hand with seven digits actually ship?....." It's COD, yes? Players have proven they will eagerly slurp up whatever is offered. There may be complaints online, but they reliably buy, regardless.

[@neveridle]

THIS. THIS GUYS TYPES THE TRUTH. This was the endgame when players and customers kept buying, year after year, the same slop that hasn't had the time to cook. Just imagine what trash will happen to sport games.

[@TheArchaos]

yeah, the problem is the player base.

[@panzer00]

CoD players dont care, they just want to play the hype game so to stay relevant in their friend circles and social media groups.

[@test-rj2vl]

In estonia we have saying that money must be taken from stupid.

[@stedz2000]

more fingers more better!

[@Kratos263]

AI should be used as a tool, not as an artist. Wonder how long the industry will take to understand this simple concept

[@liuwang9899]

AI will one day surpass humans, it's going to happen, I wonder how long will people like you take to understand that. It's not good, by all means, but it will happen.

[@XMysticHerox]

@@liuwang9899 Maybe one day but we are very far from that point.

[@Henbot]

Well AI is an artist that is unpaid for these companies but AI has a place in art but it would be what is called augmentation which is a real human artist uses AI as an assistant and give feedback etc.

[@bunyaminyilmaz3798]

@@liuwang9899 🤣

[@liuwang9899]

​@@XMysticHerox I respectfully disagree. AI 2 years ago was vastly different than AI today, it has evolved extremely fast. It makes sense big companies don't want to have to pay artists and real humans to do many things. I don't agree with this mind you, so don't hate me yet, but that's what's happening. AI is starting to replicate artstyles almost perfectly in some cases, imagine in a few years? AI voices are getting better too. This reality is coming sooner than we care to admit.

[@dobiqwolf]

The main issue with using AI to replace artist is that AI can only "create" new art based on passed art used to train it. The major downfall from that is that AI is unable to innovate. This is early days but artists and other creative employees are catching up on the trend and will change how they do their work; let it be legally and other associated practices.

[@ericknunez8069]

by the time laws get there, AI will be capaple of doing the job without the artists. Also, they can always hire people that just got out of college and is desperate for a job to keep the flow comming.

[@DJeMo]

A computer can never be, or create, a soul, so will always be acting on a programme or algorithms of examples

[@warmike]

...kind of. AI generates art from scratch, and then basically puts it into a Turing test against the art passed to it. So after hundreds of iterations it's quite similar, but technically created from scratch. It's kind of like a painter drawing from nature.

[@SoularHeart01]

@@warmike It does nothing from scratch. That's the complete opposite of how it works, otherwise there'd be no need to steal works for training data

[@Gorbachof]

@@DJeMo people used to think God created humans as better than the animals... Look at how that turned out

[@SimuLord]

If it's made with generative AI, it shouldn't be copyrightable. Copyright is for creative work. By humans. I don't normally advocate sailing the high seas, but if it's made from AI, it's not real work and has no real value and therefore can't cause economic harm when stolen.

[@NoFunNoHope]

Ehh, the key phrase here is "Work", it's *less* work to curate an AI then it is to draw a picture but it can still take many hours to poke and arrange a thing until it's presentable and something you can integrate into a larger piece. There's plenty of low effort "artistic" work that still belongs to the creator.

[@SimuLord]

@@NoFunNoHope If the creator creates it, it doesn't matter how low-effort it is, it was still created (a subject kinda near and dear to my heart as someone who used to pay the bills churning out SEO trash for content mills to fund a serious writing passion project.) If a computer creates it from whole cloth (or cobbles it together from plagiarized sources used to "train" it), it has no redeeming value and shouldn't be allowed commercial value.

[@NoFunNoHope]

@@SimuLord You're missing the point. It's work to manipulate AI, to filter content, to present it and tie it into something like a game. For a 1st hand example: I've been making a portrait set to use for the old CRPG icewind dale, I have generated tens of thousands of pictures for this, it took me days of fine tuning the prompts to get the perfect look, every time i want to generate a new class or race for a portrait it takes more fine tuning, to go through the tens of thousands of pictures and prune the ones that aren't perfect takes *alot* time. I have spent months at this so far. If i then post the result of my many dozens if not hundred+ hours of work to a site, you do not have the right to take that work and repost it uncredited (or worse claim it as your own and ask for a tip) because you don't respect AI or understand the labour that went into a thing.

[@clicksclacks]

​@@NoFunNoHopeThis reads like the old Jetsons gag where they would talk about how hard work was when all they do is press a button here and there, except your "work" relies exclusively on stolen artwork to train it. Just pick up a pencil and learn an actual skill, because genning 10s of thousands of images to get the right number of fingers sounds genuinely pathetic.

[@gamerfoxarts9331]

@@NoFunNoHope You could have spent those hundreds of hours to learn to draw instead of using ai and gained yourself a skill. Art isn't an innate talent if you put in work to hone the skill and learn it you can be a master. I had a knack for drawing but it has taken years of actual work and learning to get to where I am. From what you said you didn't edit the actual image just finetuned the prompt to put in to the generator meaning you didn't do anything to make the work yours. Ai is built on the copyrighted (considering they have taken works from major artists who images are online and work is copyrighted like Hayao Miyazaki of studio ghibli) work of others so no you shouldn't own it.

[@empiricalsmut9419]

Professional artist here! One of the tricks to detecting AI-generated content is that the level of skill is not continuous. Meaning, a Level 100 Mafia Boss artist, if he is rendering detailed textures expertly, does ambient lighting well, and knows a bunch of advanced techniques, he's likely not getting the fundamentals wrong. So he's not getting the number of phalanges wrong; he knows how to draw wrapped presents such that they make visual sense upon close inspection. AI-generated content, however, is not trained in the same way a real artist is. It doesn't progress from basics --> advanced. Instead, it just sucks up a ton of high quality artwork, but often learns incomplete lessons as a result.

[@skibidi.G]

What cute art do you draw ? ✌️😊

[@Sabagastache]

Rob Liefeld-ification if you will.

[@mycelia_ow]

Not always. When you use open source image models (like Stable DIffusion), there's so much more you can do with the output image, and even with inputting human- made images. There's quite a lot of human effort and work that can go into this post-generation, most people don't use open source image generators, and most people that do probably don't do too much beyond generating the image. I've seen some really amazing stuff generated that looks so much better than its initial generation, I've also seen human-made art improved using it. I really can't express enough just how in-depth and complicated open source models can get compared to what you can do in ChatGPT and even photoshop. It's been daunting trying to learn it all. LoRAs, controlnets, refiners, training, img2img, hypernetworks, upscaling, checkpoints, etc. barely scratching the surface. At that point, you've put in the same amount of effort as a human artist, if not more. AI is a tool for artists, it shouldn't be one to replace them. Artists using AI to enhance their own art and creative process will produce art far better than art made by just a human artist with no AI. In the future, the former will overtake the latter.

[@DearShion]

@@mycelia_ow You can't seriously think "by doing iterations on a generated image I've put as much effort, if not more, as a human artist". A single piece of work can take sometimes 30 hours to be made, and artists have to study for YEARS to be at an acceptable level, costing so much effort, soul and money on their education.

[@Downsider24]

The real issue is having the average consumer not pick up what a professional would when it comes to image generation. The average person wouldn't know where to look, has no awareness, no sense, just looks at the image, appears good enough, and that's about it. While you, myself, and others would be able to catch the obvious, most simply would not, nor do they care enough. Not all, mind you, we're seeing major pushback, almost same degrees when we said "Fuck off" with NFT bullshit, but we need to be louder.

[@Owl_of_Whimsy]

They have so little respect for players who spent 80 euro on their game they threw the first six, seven fingered generations into their battlepass and called it a day, they didn't even have the basic decency to clean it up. These parasites don't deserve contempt because even that is more energy, time and consideration than they put in.

[@TENGILL]

The question i have, if they are cutting down there costs by not having to pay salary's and benefits, why are the games still so expensive for us to buy?

[@solosuck]

@@TENGILL because people still buy it, theyre not being punished for being immoral so why would they stop

[@TheArchaos]

I have a few homebrew rules for buying games: 1) Never buy games on launch. 2) Never buy games above 40 Euro. 3) Never buy games from 'The Shitlist'.

[@olencone4005]

@@TENGILL It's all about minimizing costs and maximizing profits. They aren't making a game for art or love or fun, they're making a game for as much profit as they can get.

[@AMabud-lv7hy]

I mean, the players are more than okay with being disrespected like that, after all they buy it regularly without fail. You can only blame the devs so much before realizing they’re just dishing out what their market’s happy with.

[@Balgannis]

They ventured into IA so far, that they removed the Spanish dub on WoW's latest patch (live already) as Microsoft-Activision did not reach an agreement with the voice actors to let their voice be used on IA thingies by Blizzard. This is the first muted WoW patch for Spanish players. Even cutscenes have no voiced lines. Soon will reach a big shit show.

[@cnigth93]

South American spanish or european spanish?

[@Balgannis]

@@cnigth93 I was talking about the European Spanish. I heard some issues on the American Spanish as well, but not the same as I explained. I'm not informed on the other side I'm afraid.

[@jtdripp]

AI is really just a sophisticated spam generator, let's be real.

[@NoobCakeHunterD]

AI is just a tool. it can create slop and it can also create amazing content depending who uses it

[@xXESproductionsXx]

@@NoobCakeHunterD If I know that a human didn't create it. I won't use it.

[@brunohommerding3416]

@@NoobCakeHunterD we all know how AI is being used and will be used. Whenever money is on the line they would literally kill the soul of what makes us humans if it means making shareholders happy

[@lanboom9957]

@@NoobCakeHunterD nope, it will always be slop

[@bobshagit]

AI is nothing but garbage

[@themeanmachine84]

I am working in gamedev for almost 7 years now, with the start of 2025 I will be searching for options to pivot from gamedev to something else. Working in gamedev is just not worth it anymore (unless you're some kind of "activist"), it's no fun, the pay is bad, the atmosphere at work is not great etc. I used to love games and gaming, right now with each year I care less and less about gaming.

[@jester3443]

Yea I can't believe you made it 7 years. But good luck.

[@f.b.l.9813]

I was a graphic designer back before the lockdowns, the company I worked for went under, I ended up finding work in Construction, it's hard manual labor so I went called various Graphic designers I knew from other companies and turns out, a lot of them have been fired and replaced by AI, so I stayed in construction and just draw on patreon as a hobby now...

[@CarePackage-ut3tt]

My buddy left the game industry and moved into software engineering in the defense industry. Working with that kind of stuff everyday actually ignited his love for game making again. Him and a small team spend their free time on passion projects. This year they are on track to make more with their side projects then their 9-5. Just something to keep in mind

[@skylerlightning4620]

Yeah it better be independent game developer than company one also fact US job market is definitely crashing isn’t going be helpful for anyone.

[@14Blackspirit]

I think that would be a mistake. In my opinion right now it is the best time to make video games. You see where the big companys are heading and we can see that it will fail. As a gamedev you should capilize on that and make your own game. Try to watch pirate software. Don't get the wrong idea from the name ... just try him out and join his game jams where you make games together as a team.

[@v1kzu]

Microsoft made them worse. What an achievement.

[@StormsparkPegasus]

Microsoft and Phil Spencer are objectively worse than Kotick in every way except for harassment.

[@GoalOrientedLifting]

@@StormsparkPegasus yall acting like bobby wouldnt do this too. youre way too dramatic

[@V4Now]

Platinum?

[@Mohmar2010]

It was leaked they already were using AI in MW3, prior to Microsoft, BUT, Microsoft is heavily pushing for AI, and Activision is happy to bend to use it to save a little more What's funny is how they fired most of their own QA testers resulting in a bunch of issues

[@honkingclown]

@@GoalOrientedLifting Fr the games were already heading in this direction before the acquisition.

[@andrewj8520]

Wait wait wait. Your REWARD is a loading screen?..... Hoo boy. Worst timeline confirmed.

[@bookmanjeb7238]

Its kind of hard to feel sorry for people who put their time and money into this slop. I just don't get it i guess.

[@Qb3nsis]

Most events and shop purchases have a matching loading screen bundled with it. This is sort of exaggerating the impact of it.

[@nik_mik]

@@bookmanjeb7238 I only play cod to play ranked, don't really care about rewards or anything. But it really is a shame what's going on with the rest of the game

[@ceshmate1953]

No, the loading screen is something small to fill the space before you get to the big reward. Like a new gun. Rewards that are there just so you get something for every couple of games you play. That's why they use AI, so they don't have to spend a lot of money on shit no one cares about.

[@toaster_rtx1829]

@@ceshmate1953 very true. we cant forget that this is was from free events, not from the base game or battlepass

[@heroiam4067]

As a senior concept artist working on AAA games, thank you so much for highlihting this, you are doing the lord’s work here! The AAA videogame industry is a complete shitshow right now, we need people like you talking about it and spreading awareness on what’s going on behind closed doors. Alll passionate gamers need to know that thousands of skilled and experienced artists would love to work on their favourite franchises or new IPs to give to the fans the best possibile products, coming from a place of passion. But they are prevented from doing so by almost all the corporate big studios, which are going in the exact opposite direction right now. Following the AI trend to cash in on as much quick investor money as possibile, completly disregarding the quality of the games.

[@Yasviele]

Pls understand, poor little activisions is only making tiny little hundred of million of dollars with COD, they can't afford real workers!

[@Henbot]

It was obvious that AI was going to be used more by triple A live services because it easier for them to keep up with the monthly demand. Plus it was always going to be the big companies cutting corners not the little ones using AI

[@shadowsketch926]

and yet the ai bros keep on defending this is still good for the "little guy"

[@barrag3463]

It's not even a matter of keeping output up, it's a matter of "we don't have to pay a suite of artists anymore --> less money spent --> make more money." It's yet another example of the executives and shareholders hollowing the company out, because constant profit growth is unobtainable and unsustainable; even with people still buying, only so many people are buying, so for the last 6ish years they've been cutting costs, to make it look like the profit margin is increasing.

[@louiscypher4186]

@@shadowsketch926 What no one said it's for the little guys? AI is a tool anyone can use be they big or small. It's for everyone, something Luddites will simply never understand. This is the next industrial revolution.

[@Sawolf151]

We're finally here. Very depressing. But, also, Activision doesn't own those images if they used AI, so anyone can go crazy with them. They can't even copyright it.

[@fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

I liked it better when "the dark age of technology' was something that 40k lore just kind of vaguely alluded to has having been a bad time all round.

[@unknownhours]

Since AI cannot be copywrited, I guess there's now no penalty to ripping assets.

[@hogfry]

At this point my opinion on all of corporate decision making is just... Send in the Luigis.

[@Nuclearoverride0412]

@@hogfry beat me to it. We gotta dawn our green hats and look at CEOs like ghosts in a mansion.

[@FLAM1nWaffl3x]

Unironically. It's the only true solution

[@novasiri7809]

Very likely only going to continue to get worse.. As it's said.. 'We wanted AI to do our chores so we could do more of our passion. NOT do make us do chores and take AWAY our passion.' Proof that greed takes away all that is good in the world.

[@Whisker_Fish]

I'd bet my right arm that when President Musk takes office he'll try to put AI in the government somehow. OH BOY!!! I LOVE MY CYBERFUNK CAPITALIST DYSTOPIA!!

[@ethanbuttazzi2602]

19:41 moores law was broken a loooong time ago, it said that "The number of transistors on an integrated circuit will double every two years with minimal rise in cost.", meaning that the new tecnology would cost about the same as old one, which hasnt been true in years.

[@CapnPicard]

Stop playing games like this.

[@Netsuko]

Give it a few years and there won't be any games left that do not use generative AI. I think it's more important to focus on ethical use.

[@noiresdusk5560]

@@Netsuko There is no ethical use though? AI is inherently theft, using stolen art and assets to create unimaginative garbage. It is like if the grey goop krabby patty from spongebob came to life. Bland and overproduced.

[@SquigglyTheAsianPotato]

People won't, too many people just buy games on auto pilot

[@ceshmate1953]

Why ? People that play multiplayer don't care about voice actors for the zombie campaign.... They don't care about small rewards like a new loading screen. So why should they stop ? They just wanne play the game. You're angry for no reason. You're angry because you think that you should be angry because of a video like this.

[@MeowLesty]

@@ceshmate1953 Preach brother. CONSUME PRODUCT AND GET EXCITED FOR NEW PRODUCT! All hail the Slop!

[@kgonepostl]

Never break your back for a company. If they can replace you, they will.

[@henryromain5577]

Actors are now More important than the guys who actually make the art for the game - crazy how the industry doesn’t care about Graphic artists and concept designers

[@MrLisso98]

They should make a union. the same as those actors did. Maybe that could help

[@Sotanaht01]

I don't care about them either. It's not my problem. Give me a good game and I don't give a crap if you had to sacrifice you're entire staff and their families dark gods for it, that's somebody else's problem not mine.

[@Willias]

​@Sotanaht01 It eventually becomes your problem, though, because it will stop the creation of good games. At least from that particular team.

[@sweetcup8423]

@@Sotanaht01 Meh you don't matter

[@LoneWanderer905]

@@Willias He has a point. Do you think the majority of players care? COD could be made by Ubisoft next year and at least 80% of the playerbase wouldn't even notice if the game was "COD-y enough".

[@mchammer5592]

Activision will soon just be a slop factory with only 10 employees making $50 million every minute.

[@IricAlexis]

Only Activision? With advanced AGI and advanced robotic, all company will only need their management (owner, and investor). Until they realize who will pay their product if no one have the capital to buy it.

[@TheRogueWolf]

Well, that'd be our fault for _giving_ them $50 million every minute, wouldn't it?

[@H33t3Speaks]

I’m kinda jealous tbqh 😂

[@TrinityCore60]

@@IricAlexis lots of people, unfortunately. There’s more job than just the entertainment industry. And functionally speaking, nobody important actually cares about it. That said, that will likely drive further development of indie games, which, among other things, are generally very creative. My hope is that they become distinctive enough to turn heads away from the generic shit show will become, perhaps in turn becoming actual competition.

[@TrinityCore60]

At least, for the time being, Nintendo will not be using it. I really, really hope that remains to be true.

[@EastyyBlogspot]

I always thought AI was not going to be used to help making games better.....the Ceos and management would use it to cut costs and make them more money

[@SimuLord]

"for the love of money is the root of all evil..." You don't have to be Christian to see that Matthew had some good ideas in that gospel of his.

[@ceshmate1953]

The same AI can be used to replace CEO's and management. Remember that.

[@cheeseisgood17]

The 2019 MW reboot was so promising. The gameplay, the art, the aesthetic... It was all there... and so quickly, everything devolved.

[@stcosyem]

The “top down mandate” isn’t surprising…. I work in IT as a software engineer and US AI to enhance/speedup work. It absolutely is not a replacement… anyone that does the work would know this, and upper management pushing it aren’t or haven’t worked as engineers/developers/designers. My CTO doesn’t push it, more so encourages finding ways of how it can enhance our work, find different solutions to problems we encounter, etc. But the gaming community knows that Blizzard-Activision and other game companies are ran by financial bros and not actual developers/designers and engineers

[@lemond2007]

I had never seen that Coca-Cola ad until now and it was one of the most horrifyingly awful things I've ever seen in my life.

[@moonwarrior3342]

You wonder more why Toys for Bob jumped ship asap when how they were treated after Crash 4 and Crash Team Rumble didn't do well in the eyes of Activision.

[@MasterMindWC]

Using AI to steal someone's voice should be a crime. If there are a voice actor then their voice is the product and it seems like the companies they're working for are stealing their product. I would call the staff and in a government position I would be issuing fines against these companies for doing that.

[@fireraid9173]

Fines will never do anything, they make so much money that you would have to put their company's existence under threat to make a difference.

[@Karloss00]

Yeah, Activision has always gone back on both their word and the words of their developers. Like when the lead developer said CTR: Nitro-fuelled wouldn't have microtransactions, then a month after launch not only did they have microtransactions in the form of Wumpa Coins (the game's currency) but they also patched the coin grind through game play longer.

[@moonwarrior3342]

I still recalled that you can still grind for double wumpa coins during the weekends. But there's no deny that what Activision did there was a major dick move. Also this reminds me of how Namco lied through their teeth saying there would be no micro transactions for Tekken 8 when the game launched and then later added in the Tekken shop by reselling Tekken 7 assets.

[@ceshmate1953]

Same with fallout 76, they promised no microtransactions but as soon as christmass hit, they started selling santa outfits and resources.

[@IIzTrollin]

9:40 project zombiod is going through that right now, they contracted their ORIGINAL artist from 2011 to do new art for their build 42 update and they are investing if the artist used AI without telling te studio.

[@rustyshobbies8430]

the worst part of this AI stuff is that these companies (not just activision), put out garbage that looks like they are using chatgpt 2. So they are eliminating jobs for AI and then not using a good enough AI to do the job of the person they eliminated, no doubt in another measure of cost cutting. You can do much better with a free AI on your own and a few hours of learning how to use it.

[@AP-bc7mg]

It's called Minimum Viable Product, and it's taking over all markets, kinda like shrinkflation, Oreo's got more expensive but somehow there are less Oreo's in the package, they get you comin' and goin'.

[@PoisonedAl]

They get away with it because most COD players can't count to six.

[@ed61730]

Flippy doesn't call in sick. Flippy doesn't unionise. Flippy is happy to work all day everyday with a smile.

[@MrJamess1982]

The abuse of AI is going to be a issue going forward. A company like Activision should at the very least have some sort of quality control. The only excuse is that they think so little of their customers that they thought they could get away with it.

[@phantazem9381]

Wow 6:55 if that was in a short i would think it was one of yours if I wasn't paying attention

[@Aurkus23]

This’ll kill creativity, kill jobs and none of the money saved by the companies will be passed on to the consumers. Cost and quality of video games will decrease but, the prices won’t. Feels like the “majority” of AI has become a detriment to humanity rather than a boon. I would hate to have a doctor or electrician in the future who made it through school using ChatGPT.

[@giovannyyyy]

If the voice actor for Richtoffen leaves i'm done with cod, the only decent thing on these games is the zombies

[@forrestabbott2919]

"Out Source" = AI Assets. When players complain, they'll be able to blame a "Third Party." Save money and shift blame.

[@NeilHaskins]

I wonder if some of the six finger stuff shipping is as a form of protest by staff who don't like the decision to use AI. Just don't check too hard, and let errors through, so you can point out the issues with AI.

[@harrincourt95]

"Laundering credit" sounds so morbid, yet it's such a perfect way of describing what happens when a company uses generative AI to create art...

[@BarneyCalhounHL]

imagine paying for a 60-70$ dollar game + paying for microtransactions and getting this type of product?? Why do people keep buying into these slop, I am glad I don't pay or play each year for every new COD release. If they keep giving Activison money this will keep happening. They don't even care for the consumers at this point. They are so hungry for money, this AI is another tool for companies to get lazy and try to squeeze every cent possible. Activision sucks. and STOP giving them money.

[@PxHDB]

If the are cutting corners to their game they should also lower de price.Goddamit Activision is the perfect example of art stopping being art and just being a business

[@SuperLazyCat]

I hate how the take for AI is its all creating trash and humans aren't helping make it better. The reality is if you are a indie dev and you want to scale up AI will help you just as much as a large company will use it. You want to translate to multiple languages welp now you can do it. You want different variations of skins without sitting for hours doing the same editing over and over? I get people want to do tedious work to make things high quality but not everything has to be a long grueling repeatable task.

[@AngronIsAngry]

instead of zombies, they need to embrace cthulhu, and suddenly AI mistakes are just part of the non-euclidian horror.

[@iceflake6179]

AI should be a tool to help the artists work, never a replacement.

[@Theblueblurrr]

When I beat games I used to force myself to watch the credits just the first time as thanks to the team that put their blood sweat and tears into making the adventure I got to enjoy. As AI gets more prominent in the act of making these games. I will no longer continue this ritual. Sad times for our games are still ahead, be ready.

[@jamsbat1159]

I hate the use of AI replacing artists, but what is even scummyier is then charging for it like we all know it cost close to nothing to generate this slop don't charge us 20$ for it. Actually, how about companies stop doing pushing this AI slop all together and you know pay their artists what their worth.

[@myRAYgame]

Okay okay- you win, I subscribed because you keep getting into my recommendations (and manage to hold my weak-ass attention span, good work)

[@futakisser]

Oh wow, I didn't even realise until I paused and looked a little closer, but 4:12 is so absolutely egregious, I have no idea how anyone in their right mind would greenlight this, lol.

[@nadianikashina128]

I just wanted to say the data to train Ai is the most valuable commodity right now, the only thing is no one wants to pay people to train ai, so they just steal content instead, however Ai is eventually going to hit a wall and they are already running out of data to feed the machine so what happens when you are done sampling the best of the best? Only the worst remains... we are already having ai models train other ai models. The only thing is it might take a while for this event to fully take effect.

[@mul3307]

3:16 is the end of ad in vid

[@FabricateFrog]

We need more lawsuits for this stuff bc alot of these AI art programs just steal from actual artists.

[@adamjenson9369]

Technically Moore's law says "the number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubles about every two years", it doesn't say computing power will double every 18 months. Certainly CPU power has not doubled every 2 years for a long time. PC's now vs about 10 years ago are about 30% more powerful, not 2x more powerful.

[@Conicee]

I can't belive Activision even tried this. I guess they dont care about the copyright on those assets/voice lines. Because of a case involving a monkey taking a photo, under U.S. law, copyright is reserved for work made by humans, and humans alone. Thus works made by animals or AI is automatically public domain. It has to undergo substantial modification in order to obtain copyright status, in witch case you wouldn't be able to tell it was AI. Large corporations are being very stupid with AI right now. If Activision expects that they can matain copyright over these unlockable pictures they are in for a rude awakening.

[@devinbakon]

Ai at this point is the biggest inspiration for me to actually learn how to draw. Because I know if I draw a stick man bending over its a million times better than the ai art trying to replicate real artists

[@WatchingVTubers-xv5eu]

And to think you can simply inpaint and fix mistakes and comb through an AI image you generated and they won't even do that.

[@automaton3889]

So as the US has stated ai generated art can't be copywriten, what's stopping people placing the ai generated cod images on shirts, mouse pads, etc.. and selling them? Maybe Activision would take note :)

[@JaidynReiman]

This isn't actually accurate. What the government said is that copyrights cannot be given without significant human involvement. The limits of what can/cannot be copyrighted haven't been tested yet.

[@aaronbennett3966]

"Lets all laugh at an industry, that never learns anything. Tee hee hee."

[@MrFranklinWest]

Wait when did Activision hire "creatives"???? Also lol at everyone saying Activision "will become" slop as if it hasn't been for the past decade lmao

[@talideon]

Moore's law did hit a wall. We haven't progressed much in single threaded performance in about a decade. We're currently in the age of Amdahl's law.

[@stunlord]

yes, but will anyone notice the difference in quality? who tf plays activision games anymore. I assume it's all children and teenagers and 20-somethings who haven't realized there's countless better games and game studios out there, and that they shouldn't be supporting this trash

[@AFarCryGames]

AAA Gaming isn't worth even looking at anymore with very few key exceptions. The innovation, the passion, the quality - hell, the HUMANITY is all in Indie games and their small dev teams.

[@Zofini98]

Thank you for covering this, I feel like no one is talking about this

[@pikachu2003]

Robots will replace people. It has happened in all industry.

[@Intabih]

3:46 Well, you've never seen me wrap a present.

[@chunkymonky4433]

I think there should be a legal requirement to disclose if AI is used in the production process for a title. If AI was used for a game I want to see that on the steam page, and if AI was used to create cosmetics that are sold through microtransaction that should 100% be information that is disclosed to the consumer, because for a lot of people it would be the difference between them spending their money on a product or not (me being one of them)

[@Phalcon777]

Guess I'm glad that I never bother to pay for any more Activision stuff I'll just continue my boycott of them which I've been doing since the whole Starcraft 2 stuff with Hong Kong

[@DJDocsVideos]

If people could just stop wasting there lifetime with those crap games the problem would be solved.

[@InMaTeofDeath]

Let me say this as someone who drifts on to this channel only once in a while. You're right that it's a pretty clear difference with your AI voice especially when you hear the real thing and it back to back. But if someone just sent me an audio clip and told me it was you I would have believed it because I don't have a *that* much of a handle on the specifics of your voice yet to catch the difference. I think if the voice was only a little deeper and slowed down it would have been unlikely for someone who doesn't have a grasp on your voice to know the difference..

[@JaidynReiman]

This. The problem with AI voices in the past was it literally sounded robotic or synthesized. Now AI voices sound relatively realistic, they're at most slightly off.

[@Nic9458]

I could maybe handle using AI to finish small things like player cards, but when I saw that Zombies voice actors are leaving because they aren’t guaranteed AI protection, that is where I draw the line. I refuse to let Activision use AI to create soulless after soulless recreation of something that was created through passion in the past. Imagine if Richthofen and the gang were crappy AI voices?

[@THE_MOONMAN]

I havent spent a dollar on cod til they sort the ai stuff and yall should do the same tbh. Id love to get the christmas sweater bundle but i just cant in good faith given the context. Every dollar you spend is a vote for AI staying in your game

[@solofire8616]

The more AI is incorporated into video games. The less games are going to be creative. The less unique thing’s we have to talk about. And less jobs will be available in this industry. I can only hope that most Indie game developers will refuse to use AI. Watching this almost made me cry.

[@SotNist]

Oh no, one of the three most generic AAA publishers has become even more generic. What ever will I do?

[@kaleiohulee6693]

Been guarding myself for years... by not buying any Activision or Blizzard products. This is one of the least shocking things I've heard about them in recent memory. Anyone thinking selling out to an even bigger corporation was going to fix their problems was sniffing deep of the copium.

[@michaelmaguire4147]

One of the big potential upcoming advancements is building the "brain" as it were in analog hardware, using variable resistors, instead of "simulating" the brain in software. It has huge potential to drastically improve both the energy use impact, and the amount of computation for each action.

[@MortiePL]

i hate that every time general public notices the AI in the product the publisher goes "we're sorry" but not because they used it kind of way but in the "we're sorry - that we got caught" kind of way.

[@widdowson91]

The horse armour should have been a lesson the community learned from. Instead, we just allowed things to get worse because of our buying habits.

[@JaidynReiman]

"Our buying habits" I don't buy any of it.

[@greenfoxgrasstail2534]

AI stuff is great for temporary art. For like DnD stuff or hobby web novels and co. Get soem temporary stuff going. Have fun. Then if you want it to be good, get someone to draw that stuff for real. Based on your wants and the AI Sloop xD. We've started using AI voice generators.... for NPC background dialouge in taverns and stuff. Someone setup some script logic for it and made a bunch of voice lines in minutes. One time we had a barfight, cause two AI NPC's got each others in a tuffy. But for big compnay stuff? Without fixing anything? Well .... that's just greedy.

[@krabborg4454]

Earned a sub today, thank you for the production value this content provides!

[@wowsaclose1747]

I don't see the issue with AI art or any company using it as a tool to increase profit. Not morally, legally, or any other permutation of "I'm outraged"ly. How does a human learn art? They look at other work, find inspiration, learn from it, copy techniques that were quantified hundreds of years ago into textbooks and eventually have a semi identifiable mish mash of everything they learned and failed to implement perfectly that is now style. This is not different from AI. The process has been automated. Carpentry has largely been automated and refined to not need human hands 90% of the time. It takes niche situations or very very skilled hands to sell a product or service in that space. Most manufacturing jobs have seen this same evolution. This does not mean bespoke hand built cars and other products do not exist. It means they are niche and for small specific audiences. This is a predictable outcome of the industrial revolution and introduction of automation. As a result, almost everyone has access to goods and services Kings couldn't dream of just a few hundred years ago. Now, the industrial revolution has come for the Arts. You will be slowly downsized until only the niche or highly skilled are viable. This is not a bad thing. The majority of privileged humanity has had to re class away from manual laborer. This is just another paradigm shift. Not the end of art. Just the end of wide scale demand for cheap and mediocre skill. The truly skilled will always have a place. For the rest of you, put down the mining pick, the hoe, the digital pen.

[@pd7484]

bro i love the background music that u use, its so nice.

[@genlando327plays2]

So what you're saying is that even SANTA is getting the six-figured discount this year... 😂

[@Xpancakes11X]

10:25 If AI is going to take your job anyway why not speak out? You're out of a job either way.

[@lesath7883]

Yes. Totally. They may be betting on being promoted to "AI curator" once AI takes over their jobs.

[@Immudzen]

It does look like LLMs are plateuing and it is likely that image generators will also soon. HOWEVER, the adoption of these technologies is still quite low. Even if they stop advancing now I would expect them to continue to be applied into more places over the next 10 years.

[@ReverendKJ]

Something needs to be done now; the average person doesn’t think video game can be art. No one will defend our industry from this but us. “It’s just an image… it’s just a voice… who cares it’s only a video game?”

[@TheFlyingSailorYT]

We need a label for video games. "Made by Humans, for Humans." If AI is used for anything that a creative or developer could have done by hand, consumers should know.

[@gasracing5000]

@20:25 They call them neural cores. They are already here.

[@rylievalentine7109]

Friendly reminder to support indie devs. Like hakita with ultrakill. (cmon I want act 3 finished already :-:)

[@MyEconomics101]

Using generative AI to make concept art, to give creative direction of your game, will make AAA games feel the same. As if it could not get worse for the AAA industry segment. See the latest discussion around Unreal Engine look.

[@lordjerle8481]

Just what I'd expect from a company that's crapped out new versions of the same game every year for a decade or so.

[@theforkedman3030]

We need a tool that can ID the voices and art used in AI so people can sue for their stolen art to not be used.

[@beerasaurus]

They want all the money but don't want to do any of the work to get it.

[@bootnscoot5265]

In an era where a toilet with a head popping out of it and singing has become extremely popular media, it really isn't difficult to understand how they keep getting away with it. People are stupid and they genuinely don't care and then the people who do care are becoming fewer and farther between. Morality can't hold back an avalanche and we already know money can move mountains.

[@michaelmaguire4147]

What I hope for out of voice AI, after all the dust has settled and protections are in place, is: 1)a tiered system, where AI generated content isn't outright banned but offered at a lower price point to reflect the lower quality & cost of production, while recognizing that real human acting IS better, and thus would pay more for a product that used real paid actors. 2) maybe limited use (as a tool used by a human sound technician) to do things where we already take prerecorded lines and chop them up or other such.(obviously with permissions from all involved)

[@watchthe1369]

If creatives used this as a tool in their work, I would not have a problem with it. The AI replacing the creative who has the ability to make things "Genuine" is the problem. The thechie dweebs are too buried in their machines and number to accept human frailties which is what make for genuine work, art, and VALUE.