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Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: The latest Call of Duty game seems to contain AI-generated art that doesn’t look very good, and people aren’t happy about it. This time, it’s the newly released Black Ops 7.
On November 14, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 launched across consoles and PC. And within a few hours, players online were sharing screenshots of artwork within the game that they believe is AI-generated slop. And it’s hard not to agree.
Looking at some of this artwork, including in-game player banners, I notice the telltale signs of AI imagery, including at least one cartoon character that appears to have six fingers. Eyelines also don’t match up, and some objects seem vaguely defined. And almost all of it just looks really bland. Keep in mind, these are rewards you get for completing challenges, which makes it even more depressing; gee, thanks, some machine-vomited “art.”
Almost every single campaign and endgame calling card in bo7 is like Grok Ai generated images its so insane pic.twitter.com/5bCGNJQmgn
— Kume (@Kumesicles) November 13, 2025
Other players have shared screenshots of what looks like AI-generated artwork within Black Ops 7’s campaign, which this year is online-only and designed around multiplayer. Of course, we can’t know for sure which pieces of art in the latest Call of Duty were created by humans, which were generated by a machine, and which are a combo, with humans touching up crappy generated imagery.
But we do know for a fact that Black Ops 7 has AI art in it, as confirmed by the game’s Steam store page: “Our team uses generative AI tools to help develop some in-game assets.” This is the same disclaimer found on Black Ops 6′s store page, which was added in February.
Kotaku has contacted Activision about the AI art in Black Ops 7 and was sent this statement:
“Like so many around the world, we use a variety of digital tools, including AI tools, to empower and support our teams to create the best gaming experiences possible for our players. Our creative process continues to be led by the talented individuals in our studios.”
Black Ops 7 and Black Ops 6 both use AI art
If that sounds familiar, it’s because this is similar to what Activision and Treyarch said about Black Ops 6 earlier this year, following months of players accusing the devs of using AI slop. In an interview with IGN in August, Treyarch associate creative director Miles Leslie talked about using AI art in Black Ops 7.
The developer claimed that “everything that goes into the game is touched by the team a hundred percent,” but did admit that AI tools are used to “help.” As to why some clearly AI-generated art that was seemingly not fixed up by a human slipped into Black Ops 6, Leslie told IGN it was an “accident.”
“That was never the intention,” said Leslie. “We’ve come out and been very clear that we use these as tools to help the team, but they do not replace any of the fantastic team members we have that are doing the final touches and building that content to put it in the game. So everything you play: human-created and touched. AI tools in the world we live in: it’s how do we streamline it? That’s really the goal. Not replace, but streamline.”
And with players discovering bland AI-generated images in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Activision openly confirming it and embracing it, it seems this is just how it works now, I guess.
