Take-Two Interactive CEO Says GTA VI Couldn’t Be Made by AI

By Farouk Kannout  |  October 30, 2025 | 12:15pm
Video Games News Take-Two Interactive
Take-Two Interactive CEO Says GTA VI Couldn’t Be Made by AI

Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Take-Two Interactive, the company that owns Zynga, 2K, and Rockstar Games, has returned to the subject of AI. While speaking during CNBC’s recent Technology Executive Council Summit, Zelnick spoke on the limits of AI when it comes to creativity due to its “derivative” nature. 

“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? 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,” said Zelnick at the summit. 

The CEO’s previous statements on AI have been ones of measured eagerness. In an investor Q&A, Zelnick described himself as “pretty enthusiastic” about the incorporation of AI into development pipelines, but went on to say that “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 also cited concerns of copyright infringement as it relates to AI use at the summit, saying that “we have to protect our intellectual property, but more than that, we have to be mindful of others.” These statements coincide with the slew of legal battles AI companies have been embroiled in due to their models being trained on copyrighted works. 

Referencing the GTA developer at the summit, Zelnick added, “what Rockstar Games tries to do, and so far has done over and over again, is create something that approaches perfection.” He went on to add that the “data driven” model of AI means that, by definition, the creativity necessary for development of such titles can not exist. 

GTA VI is currently slated for release on May 26, 2026.

 
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