'I Don't Think That Generative AI Is Going to Reduce Employment, That's Crazy.' Rockstar Games CEO Lists AI Perks
Strauss Zelnick still doesn't share the concerns of some developers about AI. The Take-Two Interactive CEO considers speculation about a possible downsizing to be „the stupidest thing” he has ever heard.
In recent years, there has been a lot of talk about the use of artificial intelligence in game development, which - as is usually the case - raises concerns among some devs and players. However, Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two Interactive, doesn't believe that AI can actually replace human developers.
The head of the company that owns, among other things, Rockstar Games, has already made a name for himself as an advocate for using artificial intelligence to work on virtual worlds. Nevertheless, the CEO of Take-Two Interactive emphasized that he couldn't imagine a situation in which AI would completely replace people from game development. Apparently, after a year he hasn't changed his mind, at least judging by his words from a few days ago, spoken during the TD Cowen conference.
Zelnick repeated that "generative will allow to do a bunch of things more efficiently," allowing developers to focus on other matters. These will remain "costly and time-consuming," but with the current expansion of games - especially such huge ones as Rockstar's sandboxes - any way to speed up production is worth its weight in gold. In other words - devs will save time and money to implement more complex things, which in effect should improve the quality of the projects.
Nevertheless, even now, the American doesn't believe "for a minute" that AI will reduce employment, calling such speculation "crazy" and "the stupidest thing he has ever heard of." In his opinion, at most, the "nature of certain forms of employment" will change, which Zelnick would rather consider a positive phenomenon.
I'm in a Whatsapp chat with a bunch of Silicon Valley CEOs, and the conventional wisdom out there is like, 'AI is gonna make us all unemployed.' It is just the stupidest thing I've ever heard. The history of productivity tools is that it increases employment. It increases value, it increases yield, it enhances growth. All of these things will happen.
