Strauss Zelnick, chief executive of Take-Two Interactive, didn’t hold back. At the Semafor World Economy 2026 summit, he turned the AI job-loss debate on its head. If artificial intelligence ever starts displacing workers, he said, it ought to claim Elon Musk’s role first. “The richest man on Earth, Elon Musk, knows a little something about AI, last time I checked. He has unlimited financial resources, and he has unlimited human resources, and he has, apparently, an unlimited number of ideas. He knows his way around AI. The man works 20 hours a day. If AI were going to take anyone’s job, wouldn’t it take his job? The richest guy on Earth, wouldn’t that be job number one for AI to take? Why is he so busy?”
This sharp retort came straight at Musk’s recent X post claiming AI could whip up a full Grand Theft Auto 6. Zelnick called that idea laughable. Not just improbable. Laughable.
Take-Two owns Rockstar Games, the studio behind GTA. And GTA 6 looms large, with hype building toward its fall release. Musk’s boast ignored the grind of crafting a blockbuster—from ideation to marketing to global rollout. Zelnick hammered this point months earlier in an interview with The Game Business. “The notion that somehow new tools would allow an individual to push a button and generate a hit, market a hit, and bring it to many millions of consumers around the world—it’s a laughable notion. It’s just never been the case with entertainment.”
But Zelnick isn’t anti-AI. Far from it. He frames it as a booster for Take-Two’s core pillars: creativity, innovation, efficiency. Artists at Rockstar and 2K won’t draw every blade of grass anymore. Back in the 1990s, they did. Blade by blade. Now? A “lawn button” populates fields instantly. AI takes that further. “Anything that you can do that, you know, reduces mundane work means that our creators can do more exciting work,” Zelnick explained at Semafor, per TechRadar. No job losses. Just upgrades. Artists shift to “higher-quality work.” They ignore lawns. They build incredible creatures instead.
And he’s working harder himself. Despite embracing AI across his life. That undercuts the doom-mongers. The “woe is me” crowd, as he puts it in coverage from IGN. AI can do evil, sure. But why fixate on risks when benefits beckon?
Recent headlines echo this optimism. Just hours ago, PCGamesN noted Zelnick doubling down post-layoffs—even after Take-Two cut its AI team two weeks back. Irony? Perhaps. Yet he insists tools like these elevate output. PC Gamer captured the Musk angle perfectly: artists safer than the AI evangelist himself.
Zoom out to the industry. Gaming bleeds jobs amid a broader slump—over 10,000 cuts last year alone. Microsoft slashed thousands from Xbox divisions. Some trained AI on Candy Crush levels, only to get pink slips. EA mandates AI workflows now, sparking internal fears. Brian Fargo, Interplay founder, pays contractors extra to shun it. X chatter buzzes with skepticism; one post from @MarioNawfal called Zelnick’s pro-AI stance “Olympic-level mental gymnastics” atop layoffs.
Zelnick pushes back. Hard. Technology lifts productivity. That spurs GDP growth. Jobs follow. He told Business Insider last August that generative AI could mean higher paychecks. Workers master it, tackle elevated tasks. Mundane coding? Gone. Repetitive design? Automated. Human originality endures. As he said at CNBC’s Technology Executive Council Summit in October 2025: “There is no creativity that can exist by definition in any AI model, because it is data-driven.”
Take-Two walks the talk. No generative AI in GTA 6, Zelnick confirmed in February per Culture Crave on X. Digital tools? Yes. Human genius? Always. Rockstar’s track record—GTA V’s $8 billion haul—proves it. AI aids assets. Not epics.
Critics scoff. Layoffs hit anyway. Take-Two trimmed its “cutting-edge tech” crew in April, fueling doubts. X users like @videotech highlight Zelnick’s March dismissal of AI-made GTA as “laughable.” @shinobi602 quotes his music analogy: AI spits professional tracks, but who replays them? Greeting-card fodder only.
Still, Zelnick’s vision holds water for insiders. Gaming demands hits that stick. Marketing muscle. Distribution scale. One-button wonders flop. Musk’s xAI pours billions into Grok, yet no AAA titles emerge. Zelnick bets on humans. Efficiency gains free them for genius. Payoffs follow.
Watch GTA 6. Its reception will test this. Rockstar poured years into Vice City redux. AI whispers? Absent. If it crushes—and sales projections top $1 billion fast—Zelnick’s thesis strengthens. Musk keeps tweeting. Zelnick keeps building. AI? Just the lawn button on steroids.
Industry execs take note. Embrace without fear. Or get left drawing grass.
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