Players Suspect Pokémon Company Used AI To Make Promo Art, A Cardinal Sin For Many Fans

AI Art remains a hot-button topic for those passionate about animation and gaming, so when suspicions were raised about Pokémon GO employing AI artwork to promote its upcoming season, some players expressed they'd boycott the game.

The controversy was raised by Twitter user @Lewchube, who suggested that the art asset on the Pokémon GO website announcing the game's 11th season had hallmarks of AI generation.

Lewchube wrote, "besides the very strange lineart, any text/detail is intentionally blurred." They also wrote, "This blows my… mind because you have some of the most talented artists on the series (Kozaki, Kasai, etc.) with the highest budget possible, why couldn't you just commission them, man?"

In a statement given to Kotaku, Niantic neither confirmed nor denied they'd used AI art, writing, "Niantic uses a variety of tools and software to create visual assets. We don’t disclose specifics around our processes."

While that statement doesn't prove Niantic had used AI to make the piece, others in Lewchube's thread chimed in by pointing to specific details of the image that lack clarity or have bizarre details. One user noticed how a wall corner seemed to morph into a Creeper from Minecraft.

Another user apparently went into Midjourney to see if they could recreate the image, and it appears they got very close. User @AchillesPDX posted their results to Twitter, showing how they were able to craft a nearly identical image using AI Art software.

Niantic's suspected use of AI disappointed many fans, some of whom agreed with Lewchube's assertion that the Pokémon series has been commissioning some of the franchise's best artwork of late. Others claimed that they would uninstall the game due to the use of AI Art.

The suspected use of AI Art is another controversy for Pokémon GO, months after the company had been facing pushback for removing some accessibility features they'd put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.