CEO of Grand Theft Auto Publisher Slams AI Hype in Gaming Industry

Someone has to say it.

Grand Theft Automation

As the gaming industry is besieged by cruel layoffs and threats to employment like stilted AI-generated voice acting, the CEO of Take-Two Interactive — the publisher of massive titles including Grand Theft Auto — Strauss Zelnick says he’s not quite convinced about AI. 

“In terms of AI, the interactive entertainment business has been into AI forever,” Zelnick said in a new interview with CNBC. “Let me just remind you, AI stands for ‘artificial intelligence,’ which is an oxymoron, there is no such thing.”

Zelnick’s remarks, while framed in a circumspect way, come as cold water at a moment when many C-suites are all-in on AI hype — and because of Take-Two’s enormous stature in the space, other execs just might be paying attention.

Asset Class

Games have long used rudimentary AI for practical matters, like programming non-playable characters to find and attack the player (albeit often with mixed results.)

But the advent of generative AI over the past few years has given game studios new tools to create in-game assets like graphics and models using tech like OpenAI’s DALL-E or Recraft. On its face AI is just a new toolset, but it can also result in sloppy finished products and dissent among workers who feel the tech is pushing them out of the industry.

Zelnick, however, suggested to CNBC that Take-Two will remain realistic about AI’s limitations.

“I would love to say that [AI is] going to make things cheaper, quicker, better, or easier to make hits,” he says. “I don’t think that’s the case.”

But where he landed was a familiar line for tech execs: that instead of replacing human creatives, AI will ultimately just free them up to work on more interesting stuff.

“What [AI] means is that our creative people will be able to do fewer mundane tasks and turn their attention to the really creative tasks,” Zelnick continued. “The machines can’t make the creative decisions for you.” 

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