GTA 6 couldn't have been made by AI because it lacks Rockstar's "extraordinary" creativity, Take-Two boss says

Could AI create the next Grand Theft Auto game? Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick doesn't believe so, despite his recent comments in favor of the technology. As GTA 6 looms ever closer and our list of the best open-world games quivers in anticipation, there's the natural question of whether the long-in-development sequel will place much focus on generative AI technology. Speaking at CNBC's Technology Executive Council, Zelnick asserts that the creative spark Rockstar Games brings to its games is irreplaceable, especially by "backwards-looking" machine-learning tools.

Just last week at a talk at the Paley Center in San Francisco, Zelnick discussed how he believes generative AI "will not reduce employment, it will increase employment." However, his words at Tuesday's presentation suggest that he's still firmly of the belief that GTA 6 could not been born from such tools. "Lets say there are 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."

For starters, he notes that you can't currently do this due to the strain it places on copyright laws. "We have to protect our intellectual property, but more than that, we have to be mindful of others," he says. "If you create intellectual property with AI, it's not protectable." Just as importantly, however, he adds, "I am of the view that you wouldn't end up with anything very good. You end up with something pretty derivative."

Zelnick explains that AI's predictive modeling can often feel new, because "there are many, many, many things in life that are predictable based on data." However, while this can apply to many fields such as research into diseases that are focused on backward-looking data computation, "What we do at Take-Two, anything that isn't attached to that, it's going to be really, really bad at."

Speaking to GTA in particular, Zelnick continues, "The team's creativity is extraordinary, and what Rockstar Games tries to do, and so far has done over and over again, is create something that approaches perfection. There is no creativity that can exist by definition in any AI model, because it is data-driven." I'd heartily agree with that, and in a world where we're seeing major publishers such as Electronic Arts and Krafton embrace the technology, it's good to hear such words from a company behind arguably gaming's most influential series.

The GTA 6 release date is still some way off, but we've still rounded up all the details we've got so far, including all the available information on what the GTA 6 map will look like.

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