Ubisoft Says Anno Pax Romana AI Slop Slipped In By Accident

"Anno 117: Pax Romana takes the franchise's city-building formula back to the ancient empire but used modern generative AI tools in the development process. Fans have already begun ripping into one particularly egregious-looking piece of AI-generated imagery that appears in the background during a loading screen. "Very big difference between this and the high quality background art and loading screens of Anno 1800," one fan wrote. Ubisoft tells Kotaku it'll be replacing the offending image in an upcoming patch."

"The loading screen art that fans have spent the most time picking over shows a banquet in a Roman palace with dozens of people walking, chatting, and lounging around. Stare for a moment or two more than usual and you can start to see the weird incongruities and errors that have become familiar hallmarks of AI-generated images. Some faces in the background are disfigured or smeared, joints and torsos don't always match up, and stray lines appear out of place."

"This image was a placeholder asset that unintentionally slipped through our review process. The final image is attached here and will replace the current version of this artwork with the upcoming 1.3 patch. With Anno 117: Pax Romana being our most ambitious Anno yet, we've assembled the largest team of artists ever for the franchise and to help meet the project's unique scope, they use AI tools for iterations, prototyping, and exploration."

Anno 117: Pax Romana incorporated generative AI tools during asset creation while maintaining final artistic direction by the development team. A loading-screen background depicting a Roman banquet displayed clear AI artifacts, including disfigured faces, mismatched joints and torsos, and stray lines. The game launched on Steam with an AI disclaimer noting AI assistance for some in-game assets. Ubisoft identified the banquet image as a placeholder that slipped through review and announced the final image will replace it in the upcoming 1.3 patch. The studio stated a large artist team used AI for iterations, prototyping, and exploration.

Read at Kotaku