Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 under fire for using what sure looks like AI-generated Studio Ghibli-style calling card art

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is out today, and if you thought we were going to make it through the day without an AI-generated art scandal, I am here to tell you, hoo boy, you're living in the wrong year. I can't say with 100% certainty that there is generative AI art in Black Ops 7, but an awful lot of fans sure think there is, and with good reason.

Images of what people believe to be AI-generated art assets have been appearing all over social media and Reddit, with complaints focusing primarily on calling card images because of their overt Studio Ghibli styling. AI-generated Ghibli images have been all the rage since earlier this year: In March, for instance, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman swapped his profile picture on X for a Ghibli-style portrait that remains there to this day, despite Japan's largest manga publisher recently accusing OpenAI of "trampling on the dignity of artists" with its Sora 2 video app.

And, yeah, there's no denying that's pretty much exactly what these calling card images are, and shots are being fired.

On X:

And Bluesky:

Not to break immersion but when I came up with Tee's boss i had them be a call of duty fan cause I love very stupid details like that. So it would make sense for me to get Black ops 7 and stream it but how can i pay 70 bucks for such AI slop. I dropped Fragpunk for the same reason. Shit sucks

— @teetheclown.bsky.social (@teetheclown.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2025-11-14T21:02:17.273Z

And of course, Reddit:

So these calling cards are DEFINITELY AI generated right? from r/CODBlackOps7

Personally, my first question here would be, why the hell would you use Ghibli-style images in a Call of Duty game? It makes no sense. Fallout gets away with that kind of stylistic mash-up because it's thematically appropriate, and also Fallout has been doing it forever. But Black Ops? I'm not a fan of the series but I don't recall this sort of visual discord in previous entries.

Those of you who can remember back to last year will know that isn't the first time Activision has used generative AI to make in-game assets: They're present in Black Ops 6 (and Modern Warfare 3) as well. But in that case, the visuals were relatively normal and it took months of suspicion and allegations before Activision copped to it.

The Black Ops 7 calling card images stand in sharp contrast to those images, though, which just sort of sucked (and had bad fingers), and the feeling among some is that by using the popular Ghibli style, Activision is displaying a complete indifference to the potential for backlash. Where previously it might have taken a softer, more subtle approach to generative AI, this time around it's just rubbing people's faces in it.

Activision makes no secret of the fact that it uses AI, although as is the way with massive corporations, specifics are in short supply. The Black Ops 7 Steam page carries an obligatory AI generated content disclosure: "Our team uses generative AI tools to help develop some in game assets."

That's not much to go on, and unfortunately Activision wasn't a whole lot more helpful in a statement provided to PC Gamer. "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," Activision said. "Our creative process continues to be led by the talented individuals in our studios."

It's an empty bit of "people first!" noise that could just as easily refer to someone punching prompts into the plagiarism machine as actual artists creating actual art. Neither does it address the very straightforward question of, are these specific images gen-AI? The fact is, I don't know for certain, but given the preponderance of evidence I'm going to assume that, yeah, they probably are.

For the record, I have done my best to bully Activision into providing more specifics on the calling card images. I don't expect it'll relent, but I'll update this story if it does.