Sony faces criticism over AI dispute — this time over a PlayStation promo

Sony has found itself at the center of a new dispute over generative AI after players noticed artwork in the PlayStation advent calendar that appears to resemble AI-created images.

The promotion is currently active in Canada, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. It has not yet been posted on PlayStation’s primary social channels or the PS Blog.

The setup is simple: participants complete surveys and promotional tasks to earn tickets and enter a sweepstakes for a Ghost of Yotei DualSense controller or a PS Plus Premium subscription. Each entry awards a free avatar — and those avatars are what raised concerns.

Gamers suspect the images were produced by AI. The avatars do have a distinctive, somewhat uncanny look, although there are no obvious glitches such as extra fingers. What unsettled many most were the faux-Japanese characters in the cyberpunk-style scenes — the symbols don’t match any authentic script.

Unlike recent incidents involving Call of Duty and Fortnite, this is limited to a promotional campaign. Still, fans are puzzled: Sony controls vast libraries of franchise artwork — so why not use those assets instead of relying on AI?

Source: iXBT.games