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Take-Two CEO says AI users who think they 'can push a button and say, 'Create the next GTA 6'' are completely wrong: 'The big creative leaps forward will be generated by humans'

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick believes human creativity remains crucial for game development, despite the rise of AI, emphasizing that while AI assists, groundbreaking innovations still stem from human ingenuity, not simply pushing a button.

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Some people think generative AI is the path to unlimited consumption, believing we can simply ask a robot to make a great work of art in seconds and that'll be that. The CEO of GTA 6 publisher Take-Two, Strauss Zelnick, thinks differently.

"Those who think you can push a button and say: 'Create the next GTA 6 and make it bigger and better, here's all the code and the marketing plan,' you're not going to get anything you can work with," he says in a chapter of The Creative Entrepreneur, a book by Carolyn Dailey containing interviews with several "inspiring entrepreneurs."

"Because it's a combination of massive data sets, large language models and computing – and all of that, as I said, is backward-looking," he continues. "What comes out is a predictive model. Some of the stuff we do can be predictive, but the really creative stuff can't be. The big creative leaps forward will be generated by humans."

Zelnick previously said "the genius is human," when talking about GTA 6's development, and he "believe[s] we ought to pay for their work if it's replicated by AI after their work is done." The key there is that creative people are still needed to initially make something new.

Zelnick does also acknowledge that "generative AI will be really important to many businesses, including ours. We've had AI tools here forever – T2 has been a leader in AI, not just in this company, but in the industry. I don't think that will change." However, his assertion that it's still human creativity that will actually push the industry forward is reassuring to hear.

"Automation will replace mundane routine jobs and free up humans to do more interesting stuff, but humans will always be needed for more complex tasks," he adds. "Automation and technology will take us to higher and higher levels over time because they always have."

I'm all for computers doing things like converting PDFs and organizing folders, but I'd prefer my games to be made by humans, thanks.

While you're here, check out our ranking of the best GTA games.