New ‘ARK: Survival Evolved' AI Trailer Incites Fan Fury
It is no secret that game publishers and developers are experimenting with AI in all sorts of ways, some of them more normal, streamlining internal processes and such, others more controversial, like the recent AI-infused Aloy conversation demo from Sucker Punch. But this? This is next level.
ARK: Survival Evolved has debuted what appears to be a 98% AI-generated trailer for its new Aquatica expansion. That includes voicework, possibly a script, and certainly the video footage shown:
Almost everything after the first-person intro has the trademark smoothness of AI video and something just feels…off about almost every scene. There are the trademark AI screw-ups, like a man swimming where his feet evolve into weird fin-like appendages as he moves. Also, AI video is mostly only able to be effectively rendered in very, very short clips right now that are just a few seconds long, which is how long each of the clips are that are shown here..
Fans hate this, as does the general public, and as you can see, it's become a news story. The trailer has an underwater (no pun intended) ratio of 500/21,000 likes to dislikes, with comments with thousands of votes saying something along the lines of 'you should be ashamed of yourself' or 'how do I delete someone else's video?' The video was supposedly delisted, but it's still visible and on the Snail page right now.
FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™
Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase
Pinpoint By Linkedin
Guess The Category
Queens By Linkedin
Crown Each Region
Crossclimb By Linkedin
Unlock A Trivia Ladder
Again, AI is certainly being pushed into gamedev to some extent, much to the chagrin of many devs, especially artists and writers, but rarely to this blatant of an extent. The idea here, of course, is not really proudly displaying AI tech, but being able to save money by not paying artists or needing to take the time and energy to make an actual cinematic trailer. Why do that when you can spend a few hours messing around with AI video prompts and throw them all together with an AI narrator on top?
There seems to be a split here between publisher Snail Games, who put the trailer out, and ARK developer Wildcard, with a tweet reiterating Aquatica is being developed by Snail, while Wildcard is focused on Survival Ascended and ARK 2, not decrying the trailer outright, perhaps, but putting some distance between them, and this was posted the day the trailer went live:
I would think the reception of this trailer would be a cautionary tale to other studios attempting to do something similar. We've also seen this in other media like the ill-received AI-generated intro to Marvel's Secret Invasion, which is still brought up to this day. We will see more and more AI inserted into games whether we want it or not (or whether we know it or not) but this? This is ridiculous.
Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram.
Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
Today's ‘Wordle' #1485 Hints, Clues And Answer For Sunday, July 13th
How to solve today's Wordle. Looking for Saturday's Wordle hints, clues and answer? You can find them here: It's already Sunday and July is already very nearly halfway over. It's too hot outside and the smoke from a nearby wildfire is filling the sky. It's all very ominous, truth be told. Fire season is the worst time of year. The only cure is monsoon season. Say a prayer for rain, do a rain dance, make an offering to the rain gods. Whatever it takes. Fire or rain, we have a Wordle to solve so let's solve it! How To Solve Today's Wordle The Hint: These days, mostly found inhabiting gardens or front porches. The Clue: This Wordle begins with a silent consonant. Okay, spoilers below! The answer is coming! FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder . . . Today's Wordle Every day I check Wordle Bot to help analyze my guessing game. You can check your Wordles with Wordle Bot right here. Don't think TWICE, it's alright. My opening guess was mostly not alright, unfortunately. Though SOLAR slashed the 219 words remaining down to just five. I very nearly guessed GNOME next. It was my favorite of the words I came up with as potential Wordles. I went with PHONE because it seemed like a more likely answer. I should have gone with my gut! I failed you, garden gnomes! Today's Wordle Bot Once again: 0 points for the Bot and I thanks to guessing in four and tying. Our July totals remain: Erik: -2 points Wordle Bot: 8 points The word "gnome" comes from the 16th-century Latin word gnomus, coined by the Swiss alchemist Paracelsus, possibly based on Greek gnōmē (meaning "thought" or "intelligence"). It referred to an earth-dwelling elemental spirit. The modern image of a small humanoid creature developed later in folklore and fantasy. Let me know how you fared with your Wordle today on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. Also be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me here on this blog where I write about games, TV shows and movies when I'm not writing puzzle guides. Sign up for my newsletter for more reviews and commentary on entertainment and culture.
Forbes
2 hours ago
- Forbes
NYT ‘Strands' Hints, Spangram And Answers For Sunday, July 13
Strands Looking for Saturday's Strands hints, spangram and answers? You can find them here: Second chance at a weekend Strands, so let's see how it goes for you today. How To Play Strands The New York Times' Strands puzzle is a play on the classic word search. It's in beta for now, which means it'll only stick around if enough people play it every day. There's a new game of Strands to play every day. The game will present you with a six by eight grid of letters. The aim is to find a group of words that have something in common, and you'll get a clue as to what that theme is. When you find a theme word, it will remain highlighted in blue. You'll also need to find a special word called a spangram. This tells you what the words have in common. The spangram links two opposite sides of the board. While the theme words will not be a proper name, the spangram can be a proper name. When you find the spangram, it will remain highlighted in yellow. Be warned: You'll need to be on your toes. 'Some themes are fill-in-the-blank phrases. They may also be steps in a process, items that all belong to the same category, synonyms or homophones,' The New York Times notes. 'Just as she varies the difficulty of Wordle puzzles within a week, [Wordle and Strands editor Tracy] FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia LadderWhat Is Today's Strands Hint? Time to do the NYT hint and then my own hint after that: Completely fabricated And mine is: How it feels What Are Today's Strands Answers? Now we begin the answer portion of the program which is the spangram and the full list of the other answers, the spangram is: TEXTILES Here it is on the page, and read on: Strands The answers: Strands It's not every day that we manage to fit a full seven words in alongside the spangram. That's about as many as you can do, as spangrams can't get much shorter, and you can't really do a million four letter words. In this case, I did get a perfect score here with no hints, as when I got the spangram first, the rest came flowing. I will admit I do not know what rayon is as a material, but the rest were easy. It's like, semi-synthetic silk? Whatever that means? Sure. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Forbes
4 hours ago
- Forbes
‘7 Little Words' Hints, Clues And Answers For Sunday, July 13th
Clues and answers for today's 7 Little Words puzzle. I've added the fun, and fairly challenging, 7 Little Words to my rotation of word puzzle games recently. I thought it might be fun to try out something new and different, and it also struck me as a good game to write guides for since some of these little words can be rather tricky to cobble together. If you haven't played the game yet, you can play 7 Little Words right here. The game is simple. You have a five-by-five grid of boxes, each containing a group of letters. Above this grid are seven phrases, each giving you a clue to seven words. The number of letters is listed next to each phrase. There is no time limit and no penalty for wrong answers. Solve each one in any order you please. The example given by the game is 'deep fried treats' (6 letters) and the boxes that would create the word are DO + NU + TS for DONUTS. The game is played in UK English, so this could throw a little wrench into things for non-Brits. Today's 7 Little Words FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Before we get to the answers, below you'll find the starting 'box' for each word in today's puzzle. Spoilers ahead! Here are the first letters of each corresponding word: 1. malodorous, to a Brit = NIF 2. dolphin of Flipper's species = BOT 3. become stinky with decay = PU 4. giving off a fragrant odor = RED 5. long, flexible snout = PRO 6. stinky cheese from Germany = LIM 7. smell of earth after rain = PET Now here are the full answers. 1. soft toys = NIFFY 2. irritation in one's side = BOTTLENOSE 3. British actor Hugo = PUTREFY 4. celeb owned Welsh FC = REDOLENT 5. bowler by another name = PROBOSCIS 6. sea off Papua New Guinea = LIMBURGER 7. Japanese style of painting = PETRICHOR Today's 7 Little Words answers Today's 7 Little Words is all about our olfactory system. Smells. Words for different smells, or things that are smelly. Or words for noses. I got BOTTLENOSE first, since it's one of the only types of dolphins I actually could think of, and then PETRICHOR since I've always thought it was cool that there's a word for the smell of earth after rain. From here, I had to think a bit harder. I thought of PUTRED which got me to PUTREFY. With few two-letter boxes left, I was able to take a wild swing at NIFFY as some random British slang I'd never heard before. I found BURGER and figured that had to be part of something. Tacking LIM to the front got me the stinky German cheese, which I don't think I've ever tried. Nothing so simple as TRUNK was out there for a long, flexible snout so I worked on fragrant odors and eventually found REDOLENT (another great word). Only PROBOSCIS remained. This one was tricky!
