Look who got caught with their digital pants down. Nexon, the masterminds behind The First Descendant, are suddenly playing detective after a bunch of absolutely horrendous AI-generated TikTok ads started making the rounds. And let me tell you, these ads are so obviously fake that even my grandmother could spot the artificial intelligence from across the room while squinting through her reading glasses.

The whole mess started when eagle-eyed Reddit users began posting screenshots of these trainwreck advertisements. We’re talking about ads so poorly made that the lip-syncing looks like a badly dubbed martial arts movie from the 1970s. But here’s where it gets really spicy – one of these AI abominations appears to be using the face and likeness of content creator DanieltheDemon, and spoiler alert, he didn’t give permission for this digital identity theft.

First Descendant Devs ‘Investigating’ Shady AI TikTok Ads After Getting Called Out

The Streamer Speaks Out About Digital Face Theft

DanieltheDemon finally broke his silence on this absolute disaster, and boy, he didn’t hold back. In a comment on a TikTok video covering the controversy, he dropped this bombshell: “I have no affiliation nor contract with The First Descendant. They stole my face/reactions from my most viral video and used AI to change what my mouth says and a voice that isn’t mine. I did not consent for my likeness to be used.”

Yikes. That’s not just bad marketing – that’s potentially lawsuit territory. Imagine waking up one morning to find your face plastered all over TikTok promoting a game you’ve never even played, with words coming out of your mouth that you never said. It’s like some dystopian nightmare, except it’s happening right now in 2025.

The poor guy essentially got deepfaked without his consent, which is exactly the kind of thing that makes people lose faith in both AI technology and the gaming industry. But hey, at least Nexon is “investigating” now, right?

Nexon’s Damage Control Goes Into Overdrive

After getting absolutely roasted by the gaming community, Nexon scrambled to put out an official statement faster than you can say “artificial intelligence gone wrong.” Their response? A classic corporate non-apology wrapped in bureaucratic double-speak that would make a politician proud.

According to their statement, these questionable ads came from something called a “TikTok Creative Challenge” where creators supposedly “voluntarily submit their content to be used as advertising materials.” Convenient explanation, except for the tiny detail that at least one of the creators featured never volunteered for anything.

The company claims they’re now conducting a “thorough joint investigation with TikTok to determine the facts.” Translation: they got caught red-handed and are now scrambling to figure out how to spin this PR disaster. The best part? They only apologized for the “delay in providing this notice” – not for the actual use of AI-generated content featuring people’s faces without permission.

The AI Marketing Disaster Unfolds

Let’s break down just how spectacularly bad these ads were. We’re not talking about subtle AI imperfections here – these things were more obvious than a neon sign in a blackout. The head movements looked unnatural, the dialogue sounded like it was generated by a chatbot having an existential crisis, and the lip-syncing was so off that it made old Godzilla movies look like Oscar-worthy productions.

Reddit user iHardlyTriHard managed to find four of these digital disasters in just 15 minutes of scrolling through their For You page. That’s either incredibly bad luck or these things were being pushed harder than a door marked “pull.” Either way, it shows just how widespread this marketing catastrophe had become.

The gaming community’s reaction was swift and brutal. Social media lit up with criticism, memes, and general outrage about the use of AI-generated content. Players were particularly upset about the apparent theft of DanieltheDemon’s likeness, with many calling it a violation of basic human decency and potentially illegal.

A Pattern of Gaming Industry AI Controversies

This isn’t Nexon’s first rodeo with controversial marketing, and unfortunately, it’s not the gaming industry’s first major AI scandal either. We’ve seen a parade of companies stumbling over their own digital feet when it comes to artificial intelligence usage.

Remember when 11 Bit Studios got caught using AI-generated content in The Alters and had to promise to replace it with actual human-made assets? Or how about Frontier Developments walking back their generative AI character portraits for Jurassic World Evolution 3 after fans went ballistic? And don’t even get me started on Activision’s repeated AI blunders, including that bizarre fake Guitar Hero ad that promoted a game that doesn’t even exist.

It’s becoming a disturbing pattern in the industry. Companies are so eager to jump on the AI bandwagon that they’re forgetting basic ethical considerations like, oh I don’t know, getting permission before using someone’s face in their marketing materials.

The Bigger Picture of Digital Ethics

What really grinds my gears about this whole situation is how it represents everything wrong with the current AI gold rush in gaming. Companies are so focused on cutting costs and automating everything that they’re losing sight of basic human decency. Using someone’s likeness without permission isn’t just unethical – it’s potentially illegal and definitely creepy.

The First Descendant managed to pull in 10 million players in its first week after launch, so it’s not like they’re some struggling indie studio scraping together pennies for marketing. They had the resources to create legitimate advertising content, but instead chose to go the sketchy AI route that ended up backfiring spectacularly.

This whole mess raises serious questions about content verification systems on platforms like TikTok. If these obviously fake ads made it through their copyright violation checks, what does that say about the effectiveness of their screening process? It’s like having a security guard who’s legally blind – technically there, but not particularly useful.

The gaming community deserves better than this kind of lazy, potentially illegal marketing. We’re talking about an industry that generates billions of dollars annually, yet some companies still think it’s acceptable to steal people’s faces for their promotional materials. It’s 2025, not some lawless digital frontier where anything goes.

This First Descendant AI advertising disaster serves as a perfect example of what happens when companies prioritize cost-cutting over ethics. Nexon’s “investigation” feels more like damage control than genuine concern for the people whose likeness they allegedly stole. Until the industry starts taking digital rights seriously, we’re going to keep seeing these kinds of controversies pop up like whack-a-moles at an arcade.

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