The prevalence ofartificial intelligenceis undoubtedly one of the hottest topics in the tech industry, changing the landscape of programming and art direction. So, it’s unsurprising that the video game industry, largely maintained by skilled programmers and artists, isconstantly involvedin the back-and-forth of AI implementation.
So, it was interesting news to hear AI allegations regarding pixel art designs that were data mined from the recentHearthstone 31.0 patch. Although the art seems initially innocuous enough,many posts on X alleged AI implementation for the creation of this art.
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User 1000_toasters propagated this belief in a now-deleted post butnow revealsthat an officialBlizzardemployee “said they’ll look into it,” making many of us realize that this online whistle call for AI, which has almost grown routine at this point, could turn into a valid criticism of the company.
Understanding The Current Allegations
As can be seen in theabove threadbrought to us by X user imik, a journalist for Hearthpwn, there are several minor discrepancies between the official characters Blizzard has released and theHearthstonepixel art under scrutiny.
In addition to a high score on an art AI-checking website, elsewhere on the thread you may see changes between insignias, markings, and even hair.Even the most well-made AI art tools are known to make these minor mistakes, as calling from a library of references can muddle and misconstrue the results they produce.
Especially in a post where imik shows a few AI-generated art examples they created using theMicrosoftgenerative AI feature, the output has many discrepancies and mistakes similar to what is shown in theHearthstoneartwork.
Even if no official response from Blizzard has been released, we think it’s unlikely that Blizzard is directly behind the artwork if it turns out to have been created using artificial intelligence.The culprit could very well just be a rogue agent.
That said, many of their past outlooks on AI still make us curious about the company’s future of AI, especially given their past discussion of generative AI implementation for art design.
Blizzard’s History Of AI
Something to note is that, in the past, Blizzard has already unveiled ideas relating to AI implementation in their development cycles.One reportfrom 2023 showed the company hoping to use AI to help them with aspects like enemy AI design.
That said, this initial information isn’t too surprising, with many othercompanies already detailinghow they have begun applying AI to their games and workflow.While it may be a sometimes controversial decision, AI has largely become an important facet of gaming companies around the globe.
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Blizzard, though, is notable for its unique push for AI integration not solely into its technology but also into its art and design principles.
The same report details how Blizzard is excited to implement a new AI art-generation tool.Blizzard chief design officer Allen Adham stated that the technology would help them create “concept art for game environments as well as characters and their outfits.”
While we aren’t trying to imply that Blizzard AI technology brought us to these latest allegations, it’s still notable to understand the opinions Blizzard may have internally, as threads on X questionably point toward the suspicious images Blizzard is now investigating.
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