Artificial Intelligence has been prevalent in the gaming industry for the better part of the last decade. Despite it being glaringly obvious in some scenarios, it’s easily missable in most. Unfortunately, AAA figurehead Activision is the latest to spew AI garbage with imagery from the upcoming Guitar Hero Mobile game.
An image posted to Activision’s official Instagram page showed the chord runway typical of Guitar Hero games leading towards a stage of performers performing in front of fans. However, if you take a close look at the image, you can see the distortion in things like the body parts of those seated and even the amplifiers on the stage. What’s even more obvious is that the chord runway has a completely different color scheme than normal. The comments are filled with players who are upset at the company for very obviously using AI to promote a franchise that is already not doing too hot.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DGn9-qkAR3F/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=a6a7d48b-b3a1-4099-9b6e-3d78b8ad28fb
Unfortunately, there were also many comments from players excited about the game’s release who either did not care or did not notice that the image was AI. Considering that the image is still available to see on the company’s account, it’s clear that Activision doesn’t care either. It’s unfortunate because the concept of being able to play an official Guitar Hero title on your phone would have been massive, especially after the success of Fortnite Festival. Hopefully, Activision will rerelease this asset with official artwork as well as show off gameplay because, personally, I don’t trust that the game doesn’t use AI.
If Activision can prove that their game wasn’t developed using any AI, it’s likely that Guitar Hero Mobile will bomb on release. I’m almost half expecting to see the App Store and Play Store removing the listing altogether after receiving too many comments about the ethics behind the game.
