The topic of AI infiltration is nothing new nowadays and has been discussed over and over again in the past year. However, WIRED managed to find some interesting information about how the technology is used at Activision and what artists had to deal with after Microsoft laid off 1,900 from the studio and the Xbox department.
One of the artists, under the pseudonym of Noah, shared that in spring 2023, Activision’s then-CTO Michael Vance sent a message praising artificial intelligence and saying it held “a ton of promise.” Later, the studio approved the use of Midjourney and Stable Diffusion for concept art.
According to the artist, the company assured its staff that generative AI would not replace them and would not be used for final game assets, but soon, it sold an AI-generated cosmetic for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
“I felt that we were throwing away our humanity,” Noah said. Activision, in turn, threw away a sizable chunk of its employees.
