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A scorching potato: Generative AI methods have been shaking issues up for over a yr. It could be nearly comical watching all these large firms combating to one-up one another if it weren’t for the truth that they’re shoving the nascent expertise down everybody’s throats with out permitting an choice to opt-out in lots of instances.
Apart from the apparent risks of deepfakes and disinformation, many have fears that generative AI has come for his or her jobs, and so they aren’t fully mistaken. In response to nameless insiders, the shift has already quietly begun at Activision Blizzard.
A former Name of Obligation artist claims that final yr, firm heads promised in inside memos that they’d solely use AI to generate idea artwork and different materials that might not go into the sport. Nonetheless, by the top of 2023, Activision had already launched AI-generated content material within the type of avatar skins in CoD:MW3.
In January, Phil Spencer introduced Microsoft was shedding nearly 2,000 staffers. Though there was no breakdown of the cuts, a second supply advised Wired that lots of these laid off had been 2D artists. This declare jives with the studio’s eagerness to make use of AI for idea artwork. It additionally is smart, contemplating that fashions are a lot better at producing 2D artwork than they had been even a yr in the past.
Activision did not restrict the cuts to only CoD employees. On the identical time that 2D artists had been getting let go at Activision CoD, former Overwatch 2 artist Lucas Annunziata tweeted that Blizzard fired over half of its environmental artwork group. It wasn’t simply temps and junior employees both. Annunziata stated Blizzard sacked associate- and senior-level artists, as properly.
What a fucked up day. Half the surroundings artwork group minimize from OW2, of us I helped rent and practice. associate-senior ranges searching for work in case your groups have openings plop em under.
– �’��-� Lucas Annunziata �-��’� (@Annunziata3D) January 25, 2024
Earlier than bashing Microsoft/Activision Blizzard, do not forget that it isn’t the one one within the business contemplating changing people with AI or has already secretly executed so. Embracer introduced its AI ambitions final month, fastidiously labeling it “human-centric,” after shedding 1,500 workers since June 2023. Many others have minimize their workforce by double-digit percentages, citing every thing however AI.
If studios are already shedding some extremely gifted artists as a result of AI can create satisfactory artwork without cost, the problem will solely escalate because the fashions get higher. In the present day, 2D artists are dropping their jobs. It might be 3D artists, set creators, stage designers, and even programmers on the chopping block tomorrow.
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