An enormous new Christmas mural in southwest London has been mercilessly mocked online after viewers spotted its bizarrely disfigured people and dogs and chickens with swapped bodies. The mural, which appears to have been generated by AI, has been installed above the Cote Brasserie restaurant on Kingston upon Thames' Riverside Walk. It seems to depict a Nativity scene with pilgrims gathered to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
The issue is that the mural, which is prominently displayed above the Côte Brasserie restaurant on Kingston upon Thames' Riverside Walk, a popular stretch lined with local businesses, appears to have been hastily generated by an AI, resulting in horridly disfigured people, animals - and even a snowman. 'This mural has gone up in Kingston, ostensibly for Christmas but AI has ensured it's actually to celebrate the return of our dark lord Cthulhu,' joked journalist Matt Thrower on Bluesky.
A lot of the ire in the Metascore reviews is focused on the game's "lackluster" multiplayer-only campaign, faulty matchmaking, litany of bugs, and very unfavorable comparisons with Arc Raiders, but the use of AI also comes up a great deal as people vent their frustrations. It was noticed immediately after launch that the latest entry in one of the biggest franchises in the world had used AI-plagiarized art for player banners, calling cards and even artwork within the campaign.
By all appearances, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 features a not insignificant amount of AI-generated art, Kotaku reports. The game's over 680 Calling Cards - collectible backgrounds earned through in-game achievements or purchases - appear to be the main offenders, featuring art that imitates the knockoff animation style of ChatGPT. While it's hard to authoritatively claim that Studio Ghibli-inspired illustrations are a smoking gun, the Calling Cards players have spotted do at the very least seem unpolished for a splashy $70 game.
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.
Spike Jonze's Gucci movie The Tiger is quite something both as a film and piece of branding. With strong acting from an ensemble cast including Demi Moore, Ed Norton, and Elliot Page, it weaves contemporary themes and a White Lotus-like atmosphere with sleek cinematography and bold brand storytelling and aesthetics.
Ever been to Dragon Con? I'll be honest, I haven't myself. But from what I've heard, it's one of the most glorious celebrations of nerd culture on the planet. Every Labor Day weekend, Atlanta transforms into a carnival of comic books, sci-fi, fantasy, and everything in between. So hopefully not the kind of place where you need to be clued up on how to spot AI art.
Misshapen eyes and hands with too many fingers once made AI-generated art easy to spot. Now, as the technology advances, it's becoming harder to tell human work from machine-made creations. With some fearing the replacement of human creatives, AI-generated art has plenty of detractors. "Algorithm aversion," the bias against AI-created work, seems to only be growing, and just 20% of U.S. adults think AI will have a positive impact on arts and entertainment.