Steam Doesn't Want to Disclose Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's AI Usage

When generative text-to-image artificial intelligence models cemented themselves as an inescapable part of online cyberspace, and the time came for platforms, social networks, media companies, and others to choose between supporting the pro-AI or anti-AI side, Steam opted for the most financially cautious and neutral route of supporting neither, allowing developers to use AI in their games but forcing them to disclose it on their projects' Steam pages to inform potential customers.

Apparently, though, some games are more important than others, with Steam receiving a wave of criticism over the past couple of days for seemingly giving Activision's latest "cash cow" special treatment and choosing not to highlight the use of AI in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.

For context, earlier this week the developers unveiled the Season 1 Reloaded update, introducing several new maps, multiplayer content, cosmetic items, and – most importantly – a peculiar Christmas/zombie-themed loading screen that quickly caught the community's attention for all the wrong reasons.

Featuring a zombified version of Santa Claus, the "Necrocalus" screen was immediately lambasted for being (allegedly) AI-generated, with players pointing out issues such as the background looking a bit off, the ribbons appearing unnatural, the left hand being a tad strange anatomy-wise, and – what many considered a dead giveaway – the right hand having six fingers. Here's the picture in question for you to draw your own conclusions on whether it was churned out by a machine or drawn by a real Digital Artist:

While the presence of an AI image in Black Ops 6 did shock and anger the community, I wouldn't exactly call it an "unpleasant surprise," considering that as far back as April 2024, it was discovered that Treyarch, the developer of CoD, was looking for a 2D Artist/Animator with proficiency in "using generative AI tools." As the saying goes, how you do anything is how you do everything, and the studio's openness about wanting to hire someone with experience in using AI tools might easily be interpreted as their also being open to the idea of filling their games with AI "art."

What was surprising, however, was Steam's willingness to bend its own rules and not require Activision to officially disclose the use of AI on Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's Steam page. Even now, at the time of writing, artificial intelligence is not mentioned anywhere on the game's page – except, of course, in the game's reviews, which are filled with negative comments about, you guessed it, undisclosed AI visuals. And with the publisher itself choosing to ignore the issue and neither confirm nor deny the use of AI, it seems impossible for a casual gamer, who doesn't spend hours browsing Reddit or reading gaming websites, to know about the presence of AI in BO6.

For those unfamiliar with Steam's UI, here's what AI warnings usually look like:

To make matters worse, it seems that Steam isn't just ignoring CoD's "Necrocalus," but has been overlooking the issue since the game's release. About a month ago, Reddit user Fondl_ put together an entire album showcasing "pretty obvious" examples of generative AI usage in Black Ops 6, including loading screens, prestige icons, and in-game assets.

As it stands, only the developer or publisher of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 can 100% confirm or deny the use of image-generation AI in the game, and until then, there's still a chance – albeit an incredibly, microscopically slim one – that the visuals featured in this article only appear AI-made and were actually drawn by a human. However, if confirmation does come – presumably sometime in March 2025 when the hype around the game has died down and revealing uncomfortable truths no longer affects sales that much – it would likely mean that Steam is indeed making exceptions for a big-league AAA development studio, which is not a good look, to say the least.

And what do you think about Black Ops 6's "Necrocalus"? Was it AI-generated, or was it an artistic choice to give Santa six fingers (him being a zombie and all)? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

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