Claude Reportedly Refusing To Pull From Pokemon For AI Generation

The widespread use of AI to generate everything from artwork to video game assets has progressed faster than restrictions can be put in place to limit it. Thankfully, the video game world is trying to catch up, and it seems like Claude creator Anthropic has added commands that prevent the LLM from using Pokemon-owned IP to generate assets.

Claude Won’t Generate Your Pokemon Slop For You Anymore

The Pokemon Company

The belief that Claude users can no longer ask it to generate artwork and assets based on Pokemon IP comes from anecdotal evidence shared by Automaton. Various users have discovered that Claude will now downright refuse to assist them when they attempt to use AI to develop fan-made games inspired by Pokemon.

Big Kid Nation, who appears to be in the middle of using AI to create their own unofficial Pokemon game, has shared evidence of Claude refusing to generate assets using sprites that are “clearly” Pokemon characters. When asked if the assets already being saved on their PC changes that, Claude responded no, and still refused to generate assets using anything that resembles IP owned by Pokemon.

A deeper dive into Claude’s code by chasm appears to have unearthed what exactly about Pokemon that the LLM will now refuse to lift from. The list includes music, stages/levels, appearance, name, and characters. The sprites that Claude refused to use in the Big Kid Nation example likely fall under both characters and appearance.

This Is Likely An Extension Of Claude’s Recent Video Game Update

The Pokemon Company

Claude’s reluctance to aid users trying to AI-generate their own Pokemon games appears to be an extension of an update that prevents people from using the model to copy other people’s video games. People AI-generating their own versions of other people’s games, in some cases before they’ve even been released, is on the verge of becoming an epidemic. Claude was updated in an attempt to stop that, with specific language intended to prevent people from ripping off video games that already exist and passing them off as their own work.

That update was a blanket fix intended to cover video games as a whole. These refusals to pull from Pokemon are the first examples of Claude calling out a specific series. It makes sense that Pokemon would be the place Anthropic starts with this sort of thing too. Not only is that likely the series Claude users request the LLM pull from the most, but it’s also the one that poses the biggest legal battle should The Pokemon Company and Nintendo decide enough is enough and threaten legal action against Claude’s creators for allowing the model to use its IP to generate, in some cases, entire, unofficial Pokemon games.