AI-generated art has been a controversial topic for a long time now, with AI platforms like Dall-E, Midjourney, Jasper, Photosonic, and others being used by many for art. While it is still debated, gamers and artists have always been against it for the imperfections in the art, and big corporations are choosing to squeeze a few bucks using AI.
ID@Xbox has now come under scrutiny after it posted AI-generated art to promote indie games and developers. This soon saw critical reactions from gamers and developers alike, which led to Microsoft deleting the post without acknowledging the backlash.
Xbox Criticized for Using AI-generated Art to Promote Indie Games
ID@Xbox posted an image on its official X/Twitter handle on December 27, saying “Walking in an indie wonderlaaand” and asking players about their favorite indie games of the year. The image in the post saw children using sleds to go down a hill in the snow with a green Xbox sign and a large ID sign on the top. The image also featured a man with a controller in his hands, and while it all seemed fine at first glance, users soon started seeing issues often seen with art generated using AI.
The children had mustaches; they were maneuvering sleds with cranks attached to nothing; fishing in the snow with weird sticks; and the man with the controller had his teeth and lips mixed. This soon enraged users, and they figured that Microsoft was using AI for art and started criticizing. Soon after the criticism, the company went on to delete the post without even acknowledging that it used AI.
Users criticized the company for trying to save a few bucks instead of hiring an artist. Many also added that it is a new low for the company, even if it’s at the forefront of AI and its usage in the gaming industry. The main reason behind the backlash is that the AI services use already existing art and create the art, deriving the idea from the original art. An X/Twitter user, Rami Ismail, stated:
Can’t believe ID@Xbox spends years working super hard, building up goodwill, funding games, building trust – genuine connection with creative, stubborn, idealistic independent developers – and then posts some horrifying AI art to pinch just a few dollars. Pay for art, please.
Another user, NecroKuma, added:
Nothing says “we don’t care about indie developers” like using AI. If you can’t hire an artist to do advertising, I highly doubt you’ll do it with independent developers.
Even after Microsoft deleted the post, screenshots of the post have been circulating online, and the company has not yet commented on this. Microsoft is kind of a flagbearer of AI in the industry with its investment and partnership with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, and has also partnered with Inworld AI to use AI tools to assist developers in game development.
The company will use an AI design copilot and an AI character runtime engine toolset in game development. AI design copilot is said to help game designers explore new ideas and has prompts that help developers with dialogues, quests, and much more, whereas the AI character runtime engine allows developers to get more creative with narratives, stories, and dialogues.
It also recently struck a deal with ZeniMax Union to employ AI in game development, and the union will see how the AI is implemented at the workplace. It was said that this would help enhance workers’ productivity and growth, but it seems like there is still time before that happens. However, this isn’t the first instance of a major technology company using AI for art.
A few months ago, Amazon used an AI-generated image to promote its upcoming Fallout TV series, which too was full of errors and issues and was criticized. Another major video game company, Ubisoft, also used AI for Assassin’s Creed art and posted it on the handles of its workplaces that saw layoffs.
Ubisoft also has a “Ghostwriter” AI tool for generating dialogues. Niantic, the developer behind Pokemon Go was, also under fire for using AI to generate images to promote an in-game event.
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