Activision Deploys RICOCHET Anti-Cheat AI for Black Ops 6

Cheating on Call of Duty is nothing new. We've seen in the past that several high-ranked players were banned for using aim-assists and other cheats. But this legacy might not continue for very long. On Friday, the highly anticipated Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was released on all major gaming platforms. However, even on the first day of the game's release, Activision has already prepared against the cheaters for the online multiplayer game modes.

Activision is utilizing an AI program developed by its own team to tackle that problem straight away, starting with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. According to Activision developers, its Anti-Cheat AI technology would be used to identify and remove cheaters within the first hour of playing online.

Activision has developed RICOCHET, a unique AI-driven anti-cheat model that can identify patterns and behaviors displayed by players. Given that Call of Duty is an e-sports competition, it stands to reason that they fed this AI model data from genuine professional players. Also, they may see how a real-life player stacks up against one that can instantly target an opponent's head and fire without delay.

However, there are units of hackers and cheaters who can break into the program code and make it so that they can easily win the PvP matches. Players who use cheat usually use a feature called an aim-bot that allows them to automatically target other players and get a direct headshot regardless of their location. It's not going to work out that way due to this new Anti-Cheat AI.

This kind of conduct is immediately recognizable to the Ricochet anti-cheat system, which is based on an artificial intelligence program. It can tell whether a player is not a professional. The AI will be able to judge their gameplay pattern and skill level, and compared to their potential, it would be able to identify if any player is severely lacking in skills but still managing to get headshots in each shot.

The effectiveness of RICOCHET has yet to be tested since cheaters are common, large in numbers, and among the millions of daily Call of Duty players. Thus, the possibility of catching one won't be that easy, or the AI might as well ban a genuinely skilled player by mistake. Activision will likely use the updated RICOCHET AI for the other games of the Call of Duty series, in particular Call of Duty: Warzone.

Other studios might even start to use similar programs to prevent cheats, particularly for games like Destiny 2, Fortnight, CS:GO, Counter-Strike 2, or Grand Theft Auto Online, etc. Even though this is Activision-only software, we're sure that other studios will review it and maybe develop something similar to come to terms with Activision for using theirs for pay. We also know that there are cheaters out there who are just trying to figure it all out. Nonetheless, we believe this to be an excellent example for the business as a whole to emulate.

Check out our Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 review.