Blizzard is investigating claims that future Hearthstone hero skins are created by artificial intelligence

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Blizzard says it is investigating allegations that the pixel art designs for new Hearthstone skins planned to be released as part of The Great Dark Beyond expansion were created using generative AI.

At the moment, the skins have not yet been released or even officially announced, but data was received earlier this month as part of patch 31.0. The initial reaction was quite positive – after all, they look pretty cool at first glance – but on October 26, 1000_toasters posted a thread on X expressing their belief that the images were created by artificial intelligence.

Since then the thread has been deletedas 1000_toasters stated, they made their point (and also urged followers to “not harass the artist in question or Blizzard employees”), but not before it was highlighted and thus saved by Hearthstone content creator Zeddy on YouTube.

The AI ​​claim is quite well argued. The Hearthstone images themselves raise suspicions in relatively small ways—Malfurion’s shoulder tattoo, for example, is wrong—but a closer look at the artist, Trey Faure, does raise red flags.

Some images on Fore’s website Instagram are “absolute AI classics” as 1000_toasters put it: incorrect number of fingers, incorrectly placed weapon handles, objects passing under what they are supposed to pass through, that sort of thing. “In a lot of their work you can find a lot of little details that don’t make sense, and things that a person simply couldn’t draw,” wrote 1000_toasters.

Writer Hearthpwn Imik noticed other oddities in himself. thread: Along with the incorrect shoulder tattoo, Malfurion’s horns and hair are incorrect, as is the symbol on the Doomhammer. Small details, yes, but that’s where the devil lies.

The situation quickly attracted the attention of Blizzard: community manager RidiculousHat said Reddit And X that the Hearthstone team is aware of this claim and will be investigating this week. And that’s where things stand now: no smoking gun, but a strong smell of cordite hanging in the air.

Regardless of how Blizzard’s investigation ends, these allegations are yet another example of the burden AI paranoia and the inevitable reflexive suspicion of art. “Authenticity” rather than quality or intent becomes a central issue, and we as users and fans are left to sort out the confusion: for example, Wizards of the Coast was forced to admit that generative AI was used to create a piece Magic: The Gathering promotional artjust weeks after saying it wouldn’t happen, and days after vehemently denying it – all of this only came to light because fans complained.

The main problem with all of this is not that AI-created art is “bad,” although that often is, but that the human element is removed from artistic creation. removes intent. As staff writer Harvey Randall said last year, “There’s no mystery to how the AI ​​created the beautiful night sky, unless you’re familiar with the technology—it trained on a dataset of thousands of other night sky images, and then made educated guesses.” ” ” In practical terms, this also leads to job losses: since companies are able to produce dozens of passable images using only creation software and fairly well-defined cues, artists are people with real skills, vision and intention— are inevitably left behind.

Of course, even game companies that aren’t specifically looking to cut wages face their own challenges when it comes to hiring outside artists—they have to make sure they’re not just making stuff up with an image generator and clues. But they are the ones who “create” and, more importantly, sell the products in question, and this rightfully makes them a challenge to understand. The fact that it seems like such a difficult task goes a long way toward explaining why this AI paranoia persists, and as much as it sucks, we should probably get used to it because AI is an art doesn’t go away.

I’ve reached out to Blizzard, Fore and 1000_toasters for comment and will update if I hear back.