Infinity Ward has hit back at claims the new Gunsmith for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 features an AI chatbot.
Modern Warfare 4’s Gunsmith includes Gunny, a new feature designed to help players quickly create builds based on their playstyle and unlocked attachments. Infinity Ward has said it features weapon builds developed by the studio’s Weapons Team, and can instantly configure close-, mid-, or long-range builds tailored to different approaches to combat. In a blog post, Activision said Gunny “brings a Gunnery Sergeant’s eye to weapon customization.”
The new feature hit the headlines after a screenshot of Modern Warfare 4 showing the new Gunsmith user interface went viral on social media. In the image, we see Gunny “speak” to the player via text reminiscent of the kind of dialogue we’re now used to seeing from the likes of ChatGPT.
“Hello, I can help you build a weapon when you have more attachments unlocked,” Gunny says. “Keep leveling your weapon.” You can press RT to access Gunny from Gunsmith.
Fans picked up on this immediately and expressed concern, with some joking it that Gunny was Call of Duty’s take on Microsoft’s animated paperclip assistant, Clippy. “Genuinely what’s one upside to having an AI help build your gun,” asked one fan. “Some responses were particularly aggressive. “If you’re allowed to chat with Gunny, I’m exclusively telling it to shoot itself in the face,” one person said. “You cannot go literally anywhere in the digital world without these assholes shoving this useless s**t down our throats.”
Infinity Ward stepped in when former Call of Duty leaker TheGhostOfHope joined the complaints in a post on X / Twitter: “They got an AI chatbot in the game now to help mfs with their loadouts as if it’s not the same s**t used every year.”
That, it seems, was enough to spark Infinity Ward into action. In a reply, the developer insisted Gunny offers developer-tuned setups for quick loadout swaps between matches.
“Wrong (again.)” Infinity Ward said.
“Gunny is hand crafted by our developers, not AI. It recommends builds based on the attachments you’ve unlocked for each weapon. It helps make quick loadout changes between matches.
“Give it a shot in the Beta.”
As you can probably gather by Infinity Ward’s “wrong (again),” response, there’s a bit of needle between Activision and TheGhostOfHope. TheGhostOfHope is well known in the Call of Duty community for leaks, some of which Activision has called out as wrong in the past. For example, in February, TheGhostOfHope claimed that “sources” had indicated that Activision planned to launch a standalone Zombies game. That claim prompted an official response from the Call of Duty account, which poured cold water on the “leak.” “The rumor factory working overtime. This ain’t it,” the account said.
Then, in March, Activision demanded TheGhostOfHope stop releasing confidential information about the series, insisting that even when leaks are wrong they cause problems. TheGhostOfHope agreed, although has continued to comment on Call of Duty generally.
While Gunny may not be an AI chatbot exactly, Activision has come under fire in the past for its use of AI in the Call of Duty series. The games company used generative AI to build in-game assets for both Black Ops 6 and 7, and was called out by fans for Black Ops 6’s infamous six-fingered zombie Santa.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches across Xbox Series X and S, PlayStation 5 and PC via Battle.net, Xbox on PC, Steam, and Nintendo Switch 2 on Friday, October 23, 2026.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
