Take-Two’s CEO doesn’t think a Grand Theft Auto built with AI would be very good
Strauss Zelnick believes AI’s use for games is limited because it lacks creativity
Take-Two CEO, Strauss Zelnick, says the impact of artificial intelligence on the development of games like Grand Theft Auto remains limited, because such models inherently lack creativity.
Speaking at CNBC’s Technology Executive Council Summit on Tuesday, the exec was asked about the impact AI has had on game development, and if there were any signs it could help improve the speed of production.
Zelnick, whose company is also responsible for Borderlands, NBA 2K, and BioShock, said that while he’s not a “naysayer”, he believes AI’s impact on production remains “limited”.
One reason, he said, was because of intellectual property. A bigger hurdle, he added, was that AI is inherently “backward looking” because it’s tied to large data sets of old information.
“Let’s say there were no constraints [on AI]. Could we push a button tomorrow and create an equivalent to the ‘Grand Theft Auto’, and the marketing plan, and here it is?” he 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.
“Whether people in Silicon Valley like to hear this or not, AI is big datasets, with lots of compute, attached to a large language model. So what are datasets by definition? They’re backward-looking.”
He added: “Anything that involves backward-looking data compute and LLMs, AI is really good for, and that and that applies to lots of things that we do at Take-Two. Anything that isn’t attached to that, it’s going to be really, really bad at…. there is no creativity that can exist, by definition, in any AI model, because it is data driven.”
Zelnick said Take-Two “aim[s] to create franchises that are permanent,” the most notable of which is Grand Theft Auto, which will see its much-anticipated sixth instalment arrive next year.
“The team’s creativity is extraordinary, and what [Take-Two subsidiary] Rockstar Games tries to do, and so far has done over and over again, is create something that approaches perfection,” he said.
