My Mario Marketing Image: Nintendo

Update #2 [Fri 9th Jan 2026, 10:50pm]: A Nintendo representative has provided us with a statement from the company, saying that AI has not been used in any of the My Mario promotional images.

You can read more on this story below:

Update #1 [Fri 9th Jan 2026, 7:02pm]:

One of the models featured in the marketing campaign has responded to claims that AI has been used in the creation of these photos.

Brittoni O’myah Sinclair, who features in the shot with the tablet, left a comment on Instagram stating “As one of the models, I can promise you this is not AI guys.” (thanks to Jon Cartwright for highlighting on X.)

(Thank you Solid_Python for bringing this to our attention)

Original Story: Yesterday, Nintendo announced that it would be bringing its ‘My Mario’ collection to the West next month. It launched a cute new marketing campaign showing happy parents and young children putting the products to the test, but the images quickly set AI alarm bells ringing for many on social media (thanks for the heads up, The Gamer).

You see, in a lot of the promotional images, commenters online thought that the fingers just don’t add up. One model’s thumb appears bent back to an impossible angle, while another hand holding up a toddler has been criticised for its finger length and placement.

Hands and fingers have been used as something of a Gen-AI litmus test in recent years, with the software’s difficulties in accurately portraying their position (or quantity) becoming a telltale sign of whether an image is the real deal. Such an approach seems to have been applied to Nintendo’s new campaign, with the big reveal on Twitter being met with a tidal wave of replies accusing the company of resorting to “AI slop” in its marketing.

Images: Nintendo

But things aren’t as clean-cut this time around. While that thumb is undoubtedly looking a little funky, there’s every chance that we’re looking at nothing more than a post-shoot editing mix-up — and, to our eyes, the other hands look perfectly reasonable.

In fact, several users have come to Nintendo’s defence following the AI accusations. “I know the hands may look weird but that’s what hands do lol,” one user wrote on Bluesky, “I [swear to god] we’ve gotten to the point where if you bend your hand in a weird way it’s automatically ai”.

been seeing people throw ai accusations around and i just gotta point out how dumb it is

i know the hands may look weird but that’s what hands do lol…. i stg we’ve gotten to the point where if you bend your hand in a weird way it’s automatically ai

— azzy !!! ❄️ ⛄ | 🎂 1/17 (@eternazrael.bsky.social) 2026-01-08T18:04:36.066Z

We ran all four of the images used in the @NintendoStoreUS reveal tweet through both the NoteGBT and Decopy AI image detectors (which may use the same analysis software) with differing results. The much-discussed ‘weird thumb’ picture was said to have a 63.84% to 82% chance that it used some form of AI generation, while the other three came in at >1%. Another detector, ZeroGBT, concluded that the thumb picture had a 3% chance of being AI-generated, while the others had a 97% chance of being digitally edited. So big pinches of salt all round.

Of course, digital editing with Photoshop and the like is a completely standard practice for basically any marketing image these days. Almost every Nintendo promo will likely undergo some kind of post-shoot editing, and there’s every chance that these wonky digits are just a byproduct of that.

We have reached out to Nintendo of America for a comment, and we will update this post as soon as we hear anything back.

This isn’t the first time that Nintendo has been accused of using AI-generated images in its products. Back in May, a company spokesperson told Eurogamer that “AI-generated images were not used in the development of Mario Kart World“, after an online theory suspected the Switch 2 launch title of relying on AI placeholders for many of its billboards and signs.

Miyamoto has previously stated that Nintendo would “rather go in a different direction” than the rest of the industry when it comes to the use of AI in game development.

Do you think the My Mario images are AI-generated or simply an editing mix-up? Let us know in the comments.

[source x.com, via thegamer.com]

Jim Norman

Jim came to Nintendo Life in 2022 and, despite his insistence that The Minish Cap is the best Zelda game and his unwavering love for the Star Wars prequels (yes, really), he has continued to write news and features on the site ever since.