Take-Two Interactive boss Strauss Zelnick has returned to the subject of AI, this time suggesting the controversial technology could never create anything like GTA 6 because “no creativity… can exist by definition in any AI model.”
Zelnick has taken a measured position on artificial intelligence – a term he’s previously described as an “oxymoron” – in the past, saying that while he’s “pretty enthusiastic” about its potential to help the company “do a better job and to do a more efficient job” as a tool, it takes “genius” to “create hits” and “genius is the domain of human beings”.
His latest comments, shared during CNBC’s recent Technology Executive Council Summit, expand on that perspective, specifically in regard to AI’s “derivative” nature. One immediate concern for Strauss is copyright. “We have to protect our intellectual property, but more than that, we have to be mindful of others,” he explained. “If you create intellectual property with AI, it’s not protectable.” Ultimately, Take-Two’s content must stand up to copyright laws, he added, while also protecting people’s rights, leading to “constraints”.
But Zelnick also believes the inherently “backward looking” nature of AI – a result of its dependence on big data sets of old information – means it’s “derivative” in a way that doesn’t suit creativity. “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?” he continued. “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.”
“There are many, many, many things in life that are predictable based on data,” he added. “Anything that involves backward-looking data compute, [AI is] really good for that and that applies to lots of things [but] what we do at Take-Two, anything that isn’t attached to that, it’s going to be really, really bad at.”
Referencing Grand Theft Auto specifically, Zelnick added, “What [developer] 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.”
GTA 6 launches on 26th May 2026 following its delay earlier this year.