Artificial intelligence is infiltrating everywhere, and the video game sector is unfortunately not spared. This time, it is Ubisoft which finds itself at the heart of a controversy.
Ubisoft caused a surprise by posting illustrations generated by artificial intelligence on its social networks to celebrate Halloween. Representing his famous character Ezio Auditore under altered features. These images, initially released by the Ubisoft Latin America branch, sparked ridicule due to their poor quality. Inevitably, they were promptly removed after a flood of criticism. It’s a story…
The public reprimanded Ubisoft for this initiative
The case emerges as Ubisoft recently reported the loss of more than 1,000 employees in one year. A consequence of its budgetary austerity program. The departures include both voluntary resignations and layoffs impacting various departments of the company worldwide. Reactions from the online community were strong, pointing out the irony of a company parting ways with its artists and then opting for AI-created art. This approach was a disappointment for the French-speaking publisher, who did not need this additional controversy.
Although Ubisoft still has more than 19,000 employees, many of whom are dedicated to the Assassin’s Creed franchise and its various future developments, one may wonder why the company did not exploit its abundant image bank. of Ezio or to call on its own pool of artists. Rather than turning to an artificial solution poorly received by the public.
A controversy that goes further
The use of AI-generated art for marketing purposes is being closely scrutinized by an increasingly attentive audience. Even more so with the emergence of technologies such as DALL-E 2 and Midjourney. These simplify the production of inauthentic artistic content. This practice had already been denounced by the famous Studio Ghibli director, Hayao Miyazaki, who described AI art tools as “an offense to the very essence of creation”.
The situation is all the more regrettable since AI is causing an outcry among many creatives. And that doesn’t matter the field. The use of this technology by Ubisoft, which nevertheless has a reservoir of talent, is particularly difficult to grasp and understand. And we hope it doesn’t happen again. It’s all the more a shame since the publisher seems to be attracting a lot of people with its highly anticipated Avatar Frontiers of Pandora.
For your part, what do you think of this controversy? We shared a tweet of said creation with you so you can get an idea of it.