The discussion about generative AI isn’t going away any time soon. Larian was under fire when CEO Swen Vincke revealed that some gen-AI will be used in the developmental process for Divinity. Even the biggest game of the year, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 caught some strays in the process.
However, if there’s one developer who you’d think wouldn’t resort to using gen-AI, it’s Nintendo. The beloved developer has always put human creativity and engaging mechanics in the forefront of its projects. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Nintendo of America’s marketing department, which used gen-AI in promotional content for its My Mario line of toys.
Nintendo’s My Mario Promotional Content Features Gen-AI
via Nintendo of America
The My Mario line of products is targeted to infants, featuring plushies, toys, and even some interactive apps that they can play with. Nintendo of America recently put up a post featuring children and parents playing with some of these toys. It all looks pretty cute, until you notice the thumb of the lady that’s holding the Mario plushie.
Either her thumb is broken and she’s smiling through the pain, or the image has been made via generative AI. My money is on the latter. You’d think that people would have learnt to check the fingers on AI generated people by now, but Nintendo of America clearly missed this very obvious sign of AI generation.
As you’d expect, people aren’t very happy that Nintendo, of all people, is resorting to the use of generative AI. It doesn’t help that it also features AI-generated babies, making it all feel a bit worse. You can bet that this was a decision taken without the sign-off of the headquarters in Japan.
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The comments on the resetera thread are very critical of NoA’s use of gen-AI, especially as Nintendo is one of the most wholesome developers in the industry. Most of the comments were about how sickening it was to see AI-generated children. How hard could it have been to just toss these toys to some kids and click pictures of them enjoying themselves?