Pearl Abyss has established what may become the standard playbook: use generative AI as a production shortcut, ship the result, and treat discovery as a quality-control failure rather than a policy decision. The studio promised to remove and replace all AI-generated content and described the inclusion as 'not in line with our internal standards' — language that positions AI use as an exception to a rule rather than evidence that the rule was never enforced. What the apology does not address is the structural question: if the art was always…