Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser has once again discussed the proliferation of AI, comparing the tech to “mad cow disease” and describing the execs pushing it as “not the most human or creative people”.
Houser, who left GTA developer Rockstar back in 2020, is currently on a media tour for his forthcoming novel that not only explores AI as part of its narrative, but is set in the same world as the game his new studio is working on.
Interviewed on Virgin Radio UK by host Chris Evans, the discussion turned to the topic of AI. “Some of these people trying to define the future of humanity, creativity, or whatever it is using AI, are not the most humane or creative people,” said Houser. “So they’re sort of saying, ‘We’re better at being human than you are.’ It’s obviously not true.”
He added: “Humanity is being pulled in a direction by a certain group of people, who maybe aren’t fully-rounded humans.”
More specifically on the technology, Houser was damning on its future promise.
“I think that AI is gonna eventually eat itself, because as far as I understand it – which is really superficial – the models scour the internet for information, but the internet’s going to get more and more full of information made by the models,” he said. “So it’s sort of like when we fed cows with cows and got mad cow disease.”
He admitted it will “do some tasks brilliantly, but it’s not going to do every task brilliantly”.
Houser’s comments echo his appearance last week on UK TV, interviewed on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch programme.
“We have a whole field of areas we need technology for and AI’s great at some of the tasks and can’t do the other tasks yet,” he said in that interview. “So [AI companies] will claim it can solve every single problem and it really can’t yet. As far as I understand it, it’s a sort of hold-all term for all future computing and it’s not really doing a lot of the stuff yet. But if we all give it all of our money, it might do in the future.”
In game development, AI is becoming more prevalent, but not all studios are using it. “I don’t feel that games created with only AI will have soul,” The Witcher 3 and The Blood of Dawnwalker director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz told Eurogamer. Meanwhile the developers of Dispatch stated: “Maybe AI is a creative solution if you aren’t a creative person”.
