Infinity Ward says Modern Warfare 4’s Gunny is not an AI chatbot

Infinity Ward has denied that Gunny, a new loadout helper in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, is an AI chatbot, while separately confirming that the studio uses generative AI tools elsewhere in the game’s development.

Gunny is a widget in the corner of the loadout screen, introduced as an answer to the Gunsmith attachment system that has grown unwieldy across recent Call of Duty releases. It assembles weapon builds from the attachments a player has unlocked, and prompts players who have not unlocked enough of them to keep levelling the weapon first.

Its conversational tone led to accusations that it was a language model bolted onto the loadout screen. Retired Call of Duty leaker TheGhostofHope wrote that the game now had "an AI chat bot" to help players with loadouts, a post PC Gamer credits with driving much of the reaction.

What the studio said

The denial is narrow, and the studio has not extended it to the rest of the project. Speaking at a group presentation reported by Destructoid, Infinity Ward co-studio head Mark Grigsby confirmed the team uses AI tools during development. "We use whatever tools we have to enhance and help our developers to complete [tasks] on time," Grigsby said. "For the game, there's developmental things. We use whatever we can, whatever tools we can [in development]."

That is consistent with the game’s Steam listing, which carries the disclosure that "Our team uses generative AI tools to help develop some in-game assets." Valve requires such a disclosure from developers who use the technology.

The suspicion has a history. Players accused Activision of using AI to generate cosmetics in Modern Warfare 3 and Black Ops 6, which the Steam disclosure on the Call of Duty page later confirmed, and Black Ops 7 drew similar complaints over artwork players believed was AI-generated. Against that record, a talking widget in the loadout menu was read as more of the same, whether or not it was.