100 Thieves Apologizes for AI-Generated Elements in Old School RuneScape Merch

100 Thieves has apologized after revealing an Old School RuneScape merchandise design that contained AI-generated elements. The esports organization acknowledged the mistake and committed to working with Jagex to resolve the issue before the full release of the collaboration.

On September 29, 100 Thieves announced a merch drop featuring a T-shirt themed around Old School RuneScape's 23 trainable skills, displayed in a 4x8 grid. The community quickly identified multiple errors in the skill icons: the Defence symbol lost its shield leaving only a cross, the Mana symbol's North Star became a hockey mask, and the Herb Picking skill displayed a maple leaf instead of the correct symbol. The obvious distortions immediately raised suspicion that AI had been used in the design, prompting 100 Thieves to delete the post.

In their apology, 100 Thieves stated: "The design clearly had AI in it and we missed it." The organization explained that time pressure contributed to the error. They began conversations with Jagex in July and faced a rushed timeline of little more than a month to design, review, approve, and manufacture the apparel. To meet the deadline, 100 Thieves worked with multiple graphic designers. During the final phase, one designer used AI to quickly edit the T-shirt design before the sample was sent to production for photography.

100 Thieves emphasized their opposition to AI in creative work, stating: "100 Thieves was built by designers, artists, creators, and gamers that pour their soul into defining what gaming culture should be. AI has no place in our apparel design. A principle we share with Jagex, whose games and artwork are built on the creativity and craft of human artists and developers, and would not have approved of the use of AI in this."

The organization concluded their statement with: "Sorry to the OSRS community and to our fans, we clearly did not live up to our own standards. We are actively working with Jagex on the collaboration as we look to make things right."