Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of video game publisher Take-Two Interactive , said he is not a "naysayer" when it comes to the promise of artificial intelligence. But at the same time, Zelnick, who leads the company that publishes the "Grand Theft Auto," "NBA 2K," "Red Dead" and "Borderlands" video game series, said the signs that the technology is having an impact on game development and production are "still limited."
That's for two reasons, Zelnick told a room of technology executives at CNBC's Technology Executive Council Summit in New York on Tuesday.
The first reason — which is increasingly placing AI companies at odds with Hollywood, musicians and other creative industries — is intellectual property.
"We have to protect our intellectual property, but more than that, we have to be mindful of others," Strauss told CNBC's Steve Kovach in an interview at the CNBC event. "If you create intellectual property with AI, it's not protectable."
The data-rights clash between content owners and the AI industry has resulted in a string of licensing deals, lawsuits and ongoing criticism as AI companies continue to seek out more data sets to train their large language models.
However, the debate took another twist upon the release of OpenAI's video creation app Sora last month, which allows users to generate near-realistic, short-form AI videos through prompts. That has opened the door for a new set of concerns around deepfakes and the usage of the voice and likenesses of not only famous actors, musicians and animated characters, but also any person.
Strauss said that when it comes to AI usage at game publishers like Take-Two, it's not only important that the created content stands up to copyright laws but also protects people's rights. "There are constraints," he said.
But perhaps the bigger hurdle when it comes to utilizing more AI in game production is one at the center of what he believes is why the company continues to be successful.
"Let's say there were no constraints [on AI]. Could we push a button tomorrow and create an equivalent to the 'Grand Theft Auto' marketing plan?" he said. "The answer is no. A, you can't do that yet, and B, I am of the view that you wouldn't end up with anything very good. You end up with something pretty derivative."
Strauss said that is due to AI inherently being "backward looking" because its computation is tied to big data sets of old information.
... continue reading