FFXIV Dev Uses AI Art at Fan Fest, Crowd Goes Silent

A room full of laughing Final Fantasy XIV fans went dead quiet on day two of Fan Festival 2026 in Anaheim when beloved Square Enix localizer Christopher Koji Fox pulled up AI-generated images and videos during his lyrics panel. The shift was instant and uncomfortable.

The panel, titled "From Tacos to Tenders: Serving up the Lyrics of FFXIV," featured Fox using what he called "Copilot-kun" to generate a music video and an AI-produced image of real music artists who worked on the game's soundtrack. Fox was upfront about it, explaining that time constraints prevented him from getting permission to use official photos, and that Square Enix's CEO "has been keen on incorporating AI tools into our daily work." He then added, with what read as deliberate self-awareness: "I did this to much success. And by much success, I mean no success." One attendee on Bluesky described the moment bluntly: "The room which was mostly laughs went really quiet save for some very audible groans of disgust. I think only like 3 people laughed as intended."

Online reactions were swift. "Koji Fox speedruns the death of his good standing with the community," wrote one Bluesky user. "He spent at least six months of goodwill by showing us that he used AI at work at least once," added another. I think the anger is real but slightly misdirected. Fox's delivery, his tone, and especially that line about the CEO pushing AI tools all feel like someone smuggling a protest into a corporate-mandated presentation. Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu has publicly stated the company plans to be "aggressive" in applying AI to content development, and Fox name-dropping that directive while showing the crowd exactly how bad AI output looks doesn't strike me as a man who's enthusiastically on board.

Whether it was protest or poor judgement, the result was the same: a packed room of dedicated fans watching AI slop get projected onto a screen at an event they paid to attend. That's a rough look for Square Enix regardless of intent, and Fox's community reputation took real damage over something that could have been avoided entirely with a few stock photos or hand-drawn slides. Fan Fest 2026 otherwise drew positive reactions, particularly around the announcement of FFXIV's next expansion, Evercold, which is set for January 2027.