Take-Two CEO Says AI Won't Be 'Very Good' at Making a Game Like Grand Theft Auto

Take-Two Interactive CEO, Strauss Zelnick, has said the impact of artificial intelligence on game development is “limited” as AI models lack “creativity”. According to the executive, AI can't create a game like Grand Theft Auto, the popular open-world crime franchise from Take-Two subsidiary, Rockstar Games. And even if it could, it wouldn't be “anything very good”.

Zelnick's comments came in a CNBC interview this week, where the Take-Two boss played down the value of AI in game development. He said he wasn't a “naysayer” over the potential applications of AI, but its use in creative mediums like games was “still limited.”

The Take-Two CEO pointed to constraints related to intellectual property in a creative medium.

“We have to protect our intellectual property, but more than that, we have to be mindful of others,” Strauss told CNBC. “If you create intellectual property with AI, it's not protectable.”

AI Lacks Creativity, Says Take-Two CEO

But more importantly, Zelnick said that AI was “backward looking” and hence would not succeed creatively in making something as good as a Grand Theft Auto game.

“Let's say there were no constraints [on AI]. Could we push a button tomorrow and create an equivalent to the ‘Grand Theft Auto' marketing plan?” Zelnick said. “The answer is no. A, you can't do that yet, and B, I am of the view that you wouldn't end up with anything very good. You end up with something pretty derivative.”

AI models, the executive said, worked on data sets of older information, and while that approach could help in other fields, it would struggle to create complex and immersive video game worlds.

“Anything that involves backward-looking data, compute, and LLMs, AI is really good for it, and that applies to lots of stuff that we do at Take-Two,” he said. “Anything that isn't attached to that, it's going to be really, really bad at.”

Zelnick went on to say that creativity could not exist “by definition” in any AI model.

The Take-Two boss' comments come at a time when several companies in the games industry have begun pushing AI in video game production to cut costs. According to a recent Business Insider report (paywalled), the leadership at Electronic Arts, which recently released Battlefield 6, has mandated AI use for its 15,000 workers across different teams for “just about everything”.

Last week, EA also announced it was partnering with Stability AI to co-develop AI models, tools, and workflows to aid creatives and artists.