During the Q1 FY27 earnings call, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick expressed the company's position on implementing artificial intelligence in video game development. Amidst general industry concerns regarding potential layoffs due to AI usage, he assured that the new tools should expand creative possibilities, not replace specialists.
Zelnick noted that Take-Two had been utilizing AI and machine learning long before it became a mainstream trend. The publisher has always strived to be an early adopter of new technologies to understand exactly how they can assist in creating games.
Currently, these tools are intended to facilitate the implementation of innovations for the company's approximately 13,000 employees. The head of Take-Two categorically rejected the idea of replacing people with artificial intelligence. He emphasized that technology can indeed enhance and expand the team's creativity, but it cannot and should not become a full-fledged replacement for it.
Zelnick also commented on the strategies of some competitors who see neural networks as an opportunity to save hundreds of millions of dollars. According to him, Take-Two has a fundamentally different approach. Historically, the introduction of new technologies in the interactive entertainment industry created efficiencies that allowed studios to take on even more massive projects. Therefore, instead of simply cutting costs thanks to AI, the company is directing these resources toward significantly increasing the final quality of its games.
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