'We're actively embracing generative AI,' Take-Two boss says, after previously expressing skepticism: 'We have hundreds of pilots and implementations across our company'

There was a spot of consternation over Google's new AI-powered world builder Project Genie earlier this week: In the immediate wake of the software's announcement, the share prices of a handful of companies, including game engine maker Unity and Grand Theft Auto 6 publisher Take-Two Interactive, took a notable tumble. During today's investors call following its Q3 financial report, however, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said he's not sweating it, and he's a little confused about why anyone else is.

"The videogame business, since its inception, was built on the back of machine learning and artificial intelligence," Zelnick said during today's call. "We create our games in computers, with technology, and ever since questions began about generative AI about 18 months ago, I've been incredibly enthusiastic about what the future can bring.

"As it happens now, we're actively embracing generative AI. We have hundreds of pilots and implementations across our company, including with our studios, and we are seeing opportunities to drive efficiencies, reduce costs, and create the opportunity to do what digital technology has always allowed, which is, mundane tasks become easier and less relevant, which frees up our creators to do the more interesting tasks of making superb entertainment."

It's not clear exactly what Zelnick means that the videogame business was built on machine learning since its inception—machine learning has been a research subject for a long time but I don't think anyone considers neural networks to be the foundation of game development—but his point seems to be that videogames have always chased the cutting edge of computing tech.

He also expressed hope that, as generative AI grows increasingly useful as a tool to promote innovation and efficiency in the development process, it will eventually do the same on the creative front, "as it allows our creators to use digital tools to expand what we do, to make it even more beautiful, and even more engaging, and even more exciting."

Zelnick has previously been a relative skeptic about the capabilities of AI. He's equated generative AI to extant digital tools in the past, and has been vocal about what he perceives are its limitations: In October 2025, for instance, he said AI seems so extraordinary now because it's "a combination of metadata with a parlor trick," and prior to that he declared that he's not worried about AI creating hit videogames "because it’s built on data that already exists. It’s backward-looking. Big hits are forward-looking and therefore need to be created out of thin air." He also pointed out in February 2025 that, very simply, "there's no such thing" as artificial intelligence.

There's still an aspect of that doubt in the way Zelnick leans into 'AI as a creator's tool' in these most recent comments, rather than, say, predicting a future where billions of people are vibe-coding games, or... whatever. But the explicit suggestion that generative AI can fundamentally improve the work of human artists and game developers, rather than simply making flowcharts less messy, lands as notably more enthusiastic about the technology than I've seen in the past.

Later in the call, Take-Two president Karl Slatoff echoed Zelnick's comments, saying Project Genie "is very exciting technology" but that the core question is how it can benefit game developers.

"It certainly doesn't replace the creative process, and I would say, it looks to me more like procedurally generated interactive video at this point," Slatoff said. "There are limitations, and Google has said as much."

"There are so many more elements to game development that go beyond, quote, 'world creation' ... Even beyond world creation, there's everything else that's involved. There's the storyline, there's emotional connection, there's vibe, there's mission structure—all of those things, you cannot capture through AI, and certainly not through a world builder. So that's just a very, very small component of what we do, and if this tool bears out, it will make a component of what we do all that much better and more efficient."

If nothing else, it will make the release of Grand Theft Auto 6 a little more interesting for AI detectives. That, by the way, is still slated to happen on November 19 on consoles, and not slated to happen at all (yet, but it will be, just be patient) on PC.