Call of Duty games always get accused of being copy-and-paste jobs by those unaware of the realities of game development. It’s a ridiculous claim, one that doesn’t stand up for all the new work that goes into each and every entry from the best ones like Advanced Warfare to the worst ones like Ghosts. Perceived laziness is the true criticism here buried underneath ignorant accusations of simple copying. While Black Ops 7 was still worked on by hundreds or thousands of hard-working people, this 2025 entry has been the closest the series has come to meeting that unfair definition of “lazy.” And it’s not because of the remastered maps, strange and stunted online-only campaign, or recycled villain; it’s because of the gluttony of terrible AI-generated art that’s infected this shooter.
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As many have pointed out during the game’s launch, Black Ops 7 is riddled with scores of AI-generated artwork. It’s in posters around the world, as well as the many, many calling cards icons players get for completing challenges and playing the game. And, to put it bluntly, they’re all awful.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7‘s AI Art (Unsurprisingly) Looks Terrible
Each is similarly marked by the sterility inherent to every single piece of AI slop. It’s an amalgamation of art styles that doesn’t have its own. A computer can’t paint a soul.
Aping the timeless style of Studio Ghibli — an animation studio known for its personal touch — to put in a bunch of bizarre medieval-themed banners is ill-fitting for a game set in the future all about shooting nasty people and nastier robots. It’s not nearly as bad as, say, bastardizing the Ghibli look to mock detained immigrants as a means to sh-tpost through a fascistic crackdown, but it is still hacky. There are others that somewhat fit the Call of Duty theme (and they’re just as ugly), but it’s these wildly discordant ones that point out how transparent it is that the game just needed to be filled with “stuff.” The quality of the “stuff” didn’t matter, so it’s easy to see why Activision turned to generative AI, a technology that exclusively specializes in making stuff with no regards to quality.
The Call of Duty calling cards have never been high art — not even the weed ones — but the ones in the last few games are by and large much more detailed and lively, and there are many of them in Black Ops 7 that are, at best, incredibly questionable. While there are more than a few that are more obvious bits of AI spew (and those have seemed to be the ones that have blown up on social media), many of the 408 calling cards suspiciously look like Grok sh-t them out. A vast majority have that trademark banality inherent to AI art, and it’s obvious after mere tertiary glance.
But that’s also one of the other sinister effects of using AI during the artistic process: It brings every other piece of art into question. How can anyone trust what was made by humans in this game? Is an unsightly gun camo texture bad or AI trash? Is a flubbed enemy bark just a weird line read or from the digital vocal cords of some clanker? Despite having disclaimers on Steam, companies are likely going to hide or at least be vague with regards to what is or isn’t AI, and this ambiguity is going to have rippling negative effects.
A few other games have used AI in similar ways — something Activision desperately brought up when confirming its use of AI tools in Black Ops 7 — and have garnered controversy. The Alters had remnants of AI-translated text on computer screens that still included the prompts used to generate such text. Arc Raiders uses machine learning algorithms for its robot animations and utilizes AI voice performances compiled via data from real actors.
The response wasn’t universally positive, but there was at least a hint of nuance here. 11 Bit Studios noted the tiny bit of AI-translated text in The Alters was temporary and wasn’t supposed to be in the final game (it was later removed in an update with little fanfare, too). Embark Studios is not a small developer, but it stated this type of AI-reliant voice “acting” speeds up development. Both are also well-regarded for their innovative or fresh takes, so it’s not like these titles are even remotely close to being another Tung Tung Tung Sahur game. It would have been better for the medium and, frankly, art as a whole for these teams to not use this technology since it poisons the well, but there’s at least the smallest modicum of nuance here set against the backdrop of otherwise fresh experiences.
Call of Duty Is Too Big for Such Shortcuts
Black Ops 7 cannot even come close to claiming to have that level of nuance. It’s another half-assed, annualized sequel made by thousands of people, one that rakes in billions of dollars through microtransactions and has taken up multiple slots on the year’s list of best-selling and highest-grossing games for almost two decades straight. Even if this is a (deservedly) down year, Black Ops 7 will likely outgross most games, especially The Alters and even Arc Raiders.
But, if anything, Black Ops 7’s willingness to aggressively utilize AI horsesh-t is blatant enough to clearly demonstrate what is happening in ways more morally gray scenarios can’t. This kind of tech might be used by younger and scrappier teams in lieu of greater resources, but it’s also going to be vigorously pushed by massive corporations to cut corners and costs in a depraved effort to squeeze every last drop of blood from every last stone. Companies that can afford to hire extra artists won’t have to, and many will keep trying to push that line to change standards so they can save a few extra bucks.
It’s a collective delusion being forced upon the world by the most craven people, and it’s not going to be used in moderation to help workers; it’s undoubtedly going to be weaponized to displace many of them in an industry already rich with layoffs. Technological advancements like this, despite what so many executives say, won’t be innocently used as a tool to “empower” artists because of the economic incentive structures that call for more returns with lower investments. It’s a moral blight on top of being plain ugly, something that doesn’t change if it was modified by a human or not.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7‘s AI Calling Cards Might Just Be the Beginning
It is important to remember the humans at the center of this, as well. There have been rumblings but no big and more credible reports detailing what happened with the clearly rushed and tepidly received Black Ops 7. These annual release cycles foment a type of culture that likely makes crunch a “necessity,” and it’s possible (and plausible, given the circumstances) Xbox didn’t give the teams the room to breathe. Xbox laying off people from multiple Call of Duty teams certainly didn’t help, either.
But potentially being pressured to take shortcuts just to fill the game with nebulously created artwork doesn’t change how using generative AI sucks and continues what Activision and Xbox have already been doing with Call of Duty. AI-generated art has infected Call of Duty in multiple ways from skins to loading screens, but it is worse in Black Ops 7 because of how much more blatant it is and how it’s yet another step down a dark path.
Call of Duty has already helped push the industry down this route by normalizing storefronts in full-priced games that are stuffed with $20 skins and convoluted menu systems that constantly prod players to level up their battle pass or spend money. A bunch of ugly calling cards and posters may seem quaint within the vast scope of a Call of Duty game (and even this is small potatoes compared to the other more horrid applications of AI), but these short-sighted, cultureless vultures aren’t going to stop at just a few small JPGs, so it’s important to call out this bullsh-t now before the slop becomes all-encompassing and inescapable.
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