Take-Two CEO: AI Won’t Be Able to Create Hits, Cites Games Like It as “the Domain of Human Beings”

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has recently made a statement on artificial intelligence and its use in video game development. Zelnick, who answered questions during the publisher’s quarterly earnings report, cited that while it can be used as a tool to speed up workflow, it won’t be able to “create hits” the same way that humans can.

Here’s what Zelnick had to say about AI in game development:

As you know I’m usually a skeptic when others engage in hyperbole, [but] in the case of AI I’m pretty enthusiastic. First of all, despite the fact artificial intelligence is an oxymoron, as is machine learning, this company’s been involved in those activities, no matter what words you use to describe them, for its entire history and we’re a leader in that space. While the most recent developments in AI are surprising and exciting to many, they’re exciting to us but not at all surprising. Our view is that AI will allow us to do a better job and to do a more efficient job, you’re talking about tools, and they are simply better and more effective tools. I wish I could say that the advances in AI will make it easier to create hits, obviously it won’t. Hits are created by genius. And data sets plus compute plus large language models does not equal genius. Genius is the domain of human beings and I believe will stay that way.

Zelnick’s stance on AI echoes that of many artists, designers, and developers, who have recently had their professions challenged by the capabilities of modern artificial intelligence. Treating AI as a tool, and not as a wellspring of ideas, seems to be Zelnick’s frame of mind, though it will be interesting to see how Take-Two (and other video game companies) take advantage of the technology in ways that don’t replace the creativity of the human mind.