Take-Two Interactive reportedly lays off AI team

Take-Two Interactive has reportedly eliminated its entire AI team as part of restructuring.

The company’s former head of AI Luke Dicken shared on LinkedIn that his time with the parent company of Rockstar and Zynga had ended.

“We’ve been developing cutting-edge technology to support game development now for seven years,” wrote Dicken. “These folks know how to match innovation and novel problem-solving approaches with strong product design chops to create systems that empower people throughout the development workflow.”

Former senior director of AI development Jason Leon added: “Over the past six years – first leading Zynga’s game services division in central tech, then spending the last 2 years building out the AI team at Take-Two – we pushed the edge of what’s possible, applying emerging technologies to real game development problems.

“That chapter has come to a close, as shifting priorities from upper management have impacted my team and me.”

Several other team members, including former business operations manager Savannah S. and senior engineering manager Nadine Perez, also confirmed they were affected by the layoffs.

GamesIndustry.biz has reached out to Take-Two for comment.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick discussed the firm’s stance on AI with GamesIndustry.biz, clarifying that it is “embracing AI as we always have.”

“I’ve been enthusiastic since the very beginning,” said Zelnik. “This company’s products have always been built with machine learning and artificial intelligence. We’ve actually always been a leader in the space, and right now we have hundreds of pilots and implementations across our company, including within our studios. And we’re already seeing instances where generative AI tools are driving costs and time efficiencies.”

“That said, do I think tools by themselves create great entertainment properties? No, there’s no evidence that that’s the case and it won’t be the case in the future. Specifically with regards to GTA 6, Generative AI has zero part in what Rockstar Games is building. Their worlds are handcrafted. That’s what differentiates them. They’re built from the ground up, building by building, street by street, neighbourhood by neighbourhood. They’re not procedurally generated, they shouldn’t be.”

He concluded: “What I’ve said, and continue to say, is that tools don’t replace creativity and tools are not projects, they’re different things.”