Activision and the Call of Duty team have finally acknowledged the rumors that have been swirling for a while: Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Warzone include elements generated by artificial intelligence.
As part of Black Ops 6’s first season, “Merry Mayhem,” players stumbled upon a curious loading screen showcasing a six-fingered zombie Santa, a sure signal of AI craftsmanship. With some investigating, it became apparent that several in-game cosmetic items, such as loading screens, weapon decals, and player cards obtained as rewards or purchased in bundles from the game store, may have been AI-generated as well.
Initially, Activision chose not to comment on the whispers about their potential use of generative AI in Call of Duty, despite growing discontent among the player community. On platforms like Reddit, users voiced their dissatisfaction, feeling short-changed by what they called “AI Slop” in a premium AAA game, especially one laden with battle passes, event passes, and cosmetic microtransactions.
AI-generated content wasn’t confined to in-game elements. Both Infinity Ward and Treyarch’s holiday social media posts displayed signs of generative AI involvement. At the same time, Activision’s job listings indicated a search for talent skilled in generative AI. Upon the 2023 launch of Modern Warfare 3, Activision declared its collaboration with Modulate, an AI-based chat moderation tool. They also confirmed that AI chat moderation has been active in Black Ops 6 since its launch.
Call of Duty is widely available across Xbox, PlayStation, and PC through platforms like Battle.net, the Microsoft Store, and Steam. Early in the year, Steam introduced new policies that reversed its prior ban on AI-generated content in games, permitting such content with suitable disclosure.
Despite Steam’s new policy, Activision’s adoption of AI could potentially create legal complications due to policy changes from the United States Copyright Office. As of January 2025, they’re stating that AI-generated content used to aid human creativity does not qualify for copyright protection.
Activision could legally navigate this by using AI to generate initial designs for in-game items, which must then be finalized by human artists to qualify for copyright protection. However, any raw AI images used directly in the game, such as loading screens or decals that aren’t modified by a person, may fall outside these protections. Even the AI prompts that help generate these images or text aren’t covered under copyright laws.
Player backlash hasn’t seemed to sway Activision’s stance on using generative AI. This might not be surprising, as Activision is part of Microsoft, a company that’s been heavily investing in AI innovation. Recently, Xbox introduced Muse, a generative AI tool aimed at assisting in game preservation despite criticism from both developers and players. As of now, these concerns appear to be overlooked as major tech players continue to champion AI as a driving force in the future of gaming.
