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Key takeaways
Multiple AI-focused staff at Take-Two corroborated recent departures with separate posts.
CEO Strauss Zelnick says Take-Two is "actively embracing" AI, citing hundreds of pilots to drive efficiencies and cut costs.
Strauss Zelnick earlier stressed protecting human creative genius and questioned ads in premium titles like GTA 6.
Take-Two Interactive – the parent company behind Rockstar Games (GTA 6) and 2K Games (Borderlands, Bioshock) – has reportedly laid off its head of AI and multiple team members directly involved with the tech.
Take-Two’s former head of AI, Luke Dicken, took to LinkedIn to say “it’s truly disappointing that I have to share with you that my time with T2 – and that of my team – has come to an end.” (Thanks, Game Developer.)
“I will take the time in a week or so to make a more reflective post on my time with Zynga and T2, but for right now I would appreciate your help in finding these awesome talented folks new positions – especially in the current climate,” he adds. “We’ve been developing cutting edge technology to support game development now for 7 years.”
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Dicken was previously a senior director of AI over at mobile games juggernaut Zynga, also a Take-Two subsidiary, before moving over as the parent company’s head of AI since January 2025. A number of other AI-focused staff, including the company’s former director of AI research, also corroborated the news in separate posts.
This all comes a few short months after Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told investors the company was “actively embracing AI” and that he, personally, was excited about the tech: “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.”
Before then, Zelnick’s stance on AI wasn’t as gung-ho as other video game executives. He had affirmed that the “creative genius” of the company’s games was always human, and he believed in “protecting and paying human beings” for their work, even if it’s being replicated by AI.
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