Generative AI has been deemed one of the biggest threats to art ever, especially as technology like DLSS 5 seems willing to strip artistic intent away for the sake of photorealism. As GTA 6 continues to push graphical fidelity further later this year, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick believes that notion AI could replicate the job of an entire studio is a “laughable” notion.
Speaking to The Games Business, Zelnick claimed that Generative AI is not a threat to game development in the way its been seen. While Zelnick isn’t anti-AI himself, the CEO has been quite adamant that the technology “has zero part in what Rockstar Games is building”.
Zelnick explained that AI can help do many things, adding that speeding up the production of a PowerPoint presentation helps make more time for creating games. However, when it comes to actually making games, an AI simply lacks the human element that creates powerful entertainment.
“That’s not what we get paid for,” Zelnick said, “[what] we get paid for is making the best entertainment on Earth, and that requires all kinds of things that technology cannot and will never do on its own”.
Zelnick explained that investors going gung-ho on AI are missing the point as they push for the tech to replace human workers. When asked if the technology “evens the playing field”, the Take Two CEO responded:
“Not even a littlest bit. As I said, there’s already plenty of technology out there that allows people to create video games as a result thousands of video games are released every year. And yet, the hits all cluster among the large entertainment companies almost entirely, and now and then an indie, which is genuinely speaking well-funded and pretty robust in itself
“The notion that somehow new tools would allow an individual to push a button and generate a hit and market a hit and bring it to many millions of consumers around the world is just a laughable notion. It’s just never been the case from entertainment, and certainly there are other entertainment industries that are certainly less robust than interactive entertainment”.
For Zelnick, the only avenue he sees AI truly overruling is mundane office work, but the publishing veteran doesn’t see it outright replacing game developers, filmmakers, or even musicians—even if he admits AI can release a fairly lifelike song.
Right now, GTA 6 is close to starting its marketing push this Summer with the game prepped for a November 2026 release.
