“You have stolen my face” – The loot shooter is said to fake clips from streamers to make it look like they are promoting the game

The First Descendant is alleged to have stolen clips from streamers and altered them with AI to create fake advertisements for the loot shooter.

What game is it about?

• The First Descendant is a free loot shooter with 4-player co-op, scheduled for release in summer 2024. It will be available on Steam, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.
• You play as the so-called Descendants and defend humanity against malevolent aliens known as “Vulgus”.
• The Descendants all have different abilities that allow for a unique playstyle. There are characters that serve as damage dealers and others that act as tanks.

Here you can watch a trailer for the new season of The First Descendant:

What is being alleged against the game? The community of The First Descendant accuses the loot shooter on Reddit of having used AI to create some promotional clips for the game. While the individuals shown are (partially) real people, the spoken texts and voices are AI-generated.

A streamer named DanieltheDemon, who appears in one of the clips, commented on the issue on TikTok. He writes:

„I have no connection or contract with The First Descendant. They have stolen my face and reactions from my most viral video and altered my mouth with AI to say something else, using a voice that is not mine. I did not consent for my likeness to be used …”

Meanwhile, the company behind The First Descendant, developer and publisher Nexon, has responded to the allegations.

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What does Nexon say about the allegations? Nexon explains that the clips were submitted as part of a creator challenge and copyright-checked by TikTok:

„As part of our marketing campaign for Season 3: Breakthrough, we recently conducted a Creative Challenge program for TikTok creators, allowing creators to voluntarily submit their content for use as promotional material. All submitted videos are checked by TikTok’s system for copyright infringements before they are released as advertising content. However, we have become aware of cases where the circumstances surrounding the production of certain submitted videos appear inappropriate.” – via tfd.nexon

After a joint investigation with the video platform, the company then found a copyright infringement in the content of DanieltheDemon. TikTok identified it as a violation of the terms of service and subsequently banned the creator who unlawfully used DanieltheDemon’s content to create the clip (via tfd.nexon).

DanieltheDemon is not the first creator to be used without permission for advertisements on TikTok. The German Twitch streamer MontanaBlack promotes a perfume, but he probably doesn’t even know it. The clip used is likely several years old and his voice has apparently been generated using AI to pronounce the product’s name.