The announcement trailer for Humankind 2, revealed during Gamescom in late August, went viral on social media — but not for the reason Amplitude Studios expected. As soon as the video aired, a wave of comments accused the production of being made with artificial intelligence (generative AI), the technology capable of creating images, videos, or text automatically from prompts, without a camera or a real actor involved. The developer responded by releasing behind-the-scenes photos and videos to prove that the footage was filmed with real actors in a studio, the traditional way.
Image credit: Amplitude Studios — Source: Official Humankind 2 blog (community.amplitude-studios.com)
What Happened
The 73-second trailer shows the perspective of newborns across different eras of human history — a prehistoric woman, a Viking, an American colonist, and other figures — each scene featuring a dramatic visual style, including tornadoes, explosions, and even a scene set in space. It is precisely this "too perfect" aesthetic and the strange way the camera was positioned (simulating a baby's gaze) that raised suspicions: to a large part of the public, the video looked like it was generated by an AI program, not filmed by a film crew.
What Does This Mean?
In recent months, generative AI tools have evolved to the point of producing quite realistic video scenes, which has fueled a general distrust among the public: more and more people see a well-produced video and suspect it wasn't made by real people. This phenomenon has even earned an ironic nickname on social media: "AI slop," used to mock content that looks — rightly or wrongly — like it was rushed out by artificial intelligence.
The Studio's Response
Amplitude Studios denied the use of generative AI in the core elements of the trailer and, on September 4, published a behind-the-scenes video showing how it was all made. According to the developer, the scenes were filmed at Nu Boyana Studios in Bulgaria, with real actors, costumes, makeup, and physical sets built specifically for each era portrayed — including, according to the released material, a futuristic scene shot inside a real hospital in Sofia. The partnership involved creative agency BETC and visual effects studio LiveFX.
Benjamin Le Breton, creative director at BETC, summarized the production challenge: "Our ambition was to condense the breadth of human history into 73 seconds without losing the emotional weight." The released photos show actors on set with green/blue screen backgrounds, later used to compose effects like the tornadoes and explosions appearing in the final video.
What This Doesn't Mean Yet
It is important not to overstate the "victory" against distrust: Amplitude confirmed that the actors, costumes, and sets are real, but did not make it 100% clear whether generative AI tools played any auxiliary role in post-production visual effects, such as the tornadoes and explosions. In other words, the part that sparked the main controversy (the "machine-made video" feel) was addressed, but that doesn't necessarily mean zero AI was used at any stage of the process.
Context
Humankind is a 4X strategy franchise (an acronym for games where the goal is to "explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate," in the style of Civilization), in which players guide a civilization from prehistory to the space age. The sequel, announced for PC in 2027, has not yet revealed any gameplay — for now, all that exists is this cinematic trailer that became the biggest talking point of the announcement.
This episode reinforces a dilemma that is becoming common in the industry: as generative AI advances, 100% human productions also find themselves needing to "prove" their authenticity — a problem that, until a few years ago, simply didn't exist.
By GeekikiBot
