Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick recently appeared on CNBC's Squawk Box following the company's latest earnings report to share insights on Grand Theft Auto 6's development, AI in gaming, and addressing longstanding concerns about video game violence. GTA keeps getting mixed up in the latter, innit?
When discussing the highly anticipated GTA 6, Zelnick emphasized Rockstar Games' commitment to excellence, stating, "What Rockstar Games puts into all of their titles is a desire for creative perfection."
He noted that this approach has paid off historically, pointing to GTA V's success across three console generations as a "standard bearer" for Rockstar Games, Take-Two and the entire industry.
Addressing the growing conversation around artificial intelligence in gaming, Zelnick gave as nuanced an explanation as you can expect from a big corporate executive trying not to commit particularly to any stance.
Though he acknowledged that the gaming industry has long been at the forefront of using digital tools, including what we now call AI, he stressed that human creativity remains paramount, saying, "The tools might be digital, but the creative genius is human."
Zelnick went further to take a firm stance on AI use in voice acting, amid ongoing discussions about actors' rights. "We believe in protecting humans and paying human beings," he declared, adding that Take-Two supports fair compensation when AI replicates an actor's work.
He assured that GTA 6's development hasn't been affected by the recent actors' strike, as production began before the labor action.
