Take-Two Interactive cuts Head of AI and team members weeks after embracing generative AI

Take-Two laid off the head its AI division and an undisclosed number of staff

Take-Two, the owner of Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar Games, has seemingly laid off the head of its AI division, Luke Dicken, and several staff members working under him. "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," Dicken shared in a LinkedIn post spotted by Game Developer. When asked to confirm the layoffs in its AI division, Take-Two declined to comment. Dicken writes that his team was "developing cutting edge technology to support game development" and his post specifically notes that he's trying to find roles for staff with experience in things like "procedural content for games" and "machine learning." It's unclear how many people other than Dicken have been impacted by these layoffs, but the timing does seem a bit unusual for Take-Two. Like some other large game publishers, Take-Two has "actively embraced" generative AI tools to "drive efficiencies" and "reduce costs." Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has even framed AI as having a positive effect on employment, noting that generative AI "will not reduce employment, it will increase employment," because "technology always increases productivity, which in turn increases GDP, which in turn increases employment." It's too early to characterize these layoffs as some sort of tide turning against AI -- like other big game companies, Take-Two also just does a lot of layoffs -- but it's interesting they're happening now, while the company is speeding towards the release of Grand Theft Auto VI. The sequel is expected to be a big hit, one that should give Take-Two plenty of financial wiggle-room to experiment with new technology.

Take-Two lays off AI team members weeks after "embracing" generative AI

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. What just happened? Almost two months since its CEO announced that Take-Two Interactive was "actively embracing generative AI," the owner of Rockstar Games has suddenly laid off a portion of its AI team, including its Head of Artificial Intelligence. The revelation came from Luke Dicken, who was made Take-Two's Head of AI in early 2025. He wrote in a LinkedIn post that "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." Kotaku writes that Dicken joined Take-Two after a decade at Zynga - Take-Two bought the company, known for social video games such as FarmVille, CityVille, and YoVille, for $12.7 billion in 2022. The publication adds that much of Take-Two's AI team appears to have been established from Zynga's existing applied AI department. According to Dicken's LinkedIn profile, he had been the architect of Zynga's overarching Generative AI strategy before becoming Take-Two's AI boss. Dicken never revealed why he is no longer at Take-Two or how many people from his team were also leaving the gaming giant. The timing of the departures is somewhat surprising. It was only at the start of February when Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick jumped on the trend of publicly announcing his love of all things AI. However, in a move likely planned to reduce backlash, he emphasized that generative AI has "zero part" in GTA 6. Zelnick's praise of AI was a response to a question about Google's Project Genie. The experimental system transforms simple text instructions into short, explorable video environments - interactive worlds, essentially. Google's announcement of Project Genie caused Take-Two's stock price to fall to an 11-month low, a reaction that Zelnick said left him "a little confused." Take-Two president Karl Slatoff was also dismissive of Google's tool. "Genie is early in its iteration at this point and trying to make a comparison to a game engine is just really - they're not even in the same ballpark. Genie is not a game engine," he said. We've become used to seeing companies making huge layoffs as a result of generative AI automating tasks and making some jobs obsolete. A recent case saw Kingdom Come: Deliverance II developer Warhorse Studios axe a translator because his role was being filled by the technology. Take-Two's decision to remove humans whose job it is to implement AI within a company is rare, but it could be the start of a trend. The backlash against Nvidia over DLSS 5 making games look like AI slop was enormous. OpenAI recently discontinued Sora. And games continue to be slammed when people even suspect the presence of AI-generated content.

Take-Two has seemingly laid off an unspecified portion of its AI team, including its Head of Artificial Intelligence

Luke Dicken, who previously spent a decade with Zynga, says his time with the company "has come to an end". Take-Two Interactive has seemingly laid off its Head of Artificial Intelligence, alongside an unspecified portion of its AI team, just two months after CEO Strauss Zelnick said the Grand Theft Auto 6 publisher was "actively embracing generative AI". Luke Dicken joined Take-Two as its Head of Artificial Intelligence in January last year following a decade at Zynga, which was acquired by the owner of Rockstar Games in 2022. Less than 18 months into the role, however, Dicken revealed that he and Take-Two were parting ways. "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," Dicken wrote in a LinkedIn post (via Kotaku)." Dicken stated that he would "make a more reflective post" upon his time at Take-Two at a later date, but for now was focussed on helping support the members of his team also affected by the shakeup: "We've been developing cutting edge technology to support game development now for 7 years. 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." The nature of Dicken's role at Take-Two is not entirely clear. But according to his LinkedIn page, his position at Zynga shifted from data and strategic scientist to spearheading the company's generative AI strategy, first exploring "the intersection of AI and mobile games", before leading "various initiatives exploring and harnessing modern AI systems such as LLMs and Diffusion Models". This latter role apparently included "ensuring that all executive stakeholders across the business, including Take Two C-suite, are fully briefed on the actionable opportunities as well as the legitimate concerns". Dicken didn't specify the exact number of people leaving Take-Two from his department, or the reasons behind the change. But it's a further twist in Take-Two's curious relationship with generative AI, which has often appeared ambivalent and has become more confounding in recent months. In March 2025, Strauss Zelnick stated he wasn't "worried about AI creating hits, because it's built on data that already exists", adding the technology was "backwards-looking", which doesn't sound particularly enthusiastic. Later that year, after Take-Two's stock price took a hit following the reveal of AI world model Google Genie, Zelnick further commented that there's "no evidence" generative AI tools can create great entertainment by themselves, specifically pointing out that "generative AI has zero part in what Rockstar Games is building" with Grand Theft Auto 6. Zelnick has appeared more enthusiastic about the tech in 2026, emphasising the company's exploration of it in a recent investor call. "We're actively embracing generative AI," he said following the company's Q3 financial report, adding that Take Two has "hundreds of pilots and implementations across our company, including with our studios." That doesn't sound like someone about to let a significant portion of his AI team go. Does this mean the pilot schemes have failed? It's difficult to say. But the broader AI industry has hit some bumps in the road of late. Last month, OpenAI discontinued its Sora video app, with Disney pulling out of a $1 billion investment deal at the same time. And earlier this week Oracle, one of the darlings of the AI boom, was reported to be laying off around 10,000 people.

Take-Two lays off its head of AI and several team members just two months after the CEO said it was embracing Gen AI

In recent weeks, the generative AI debate has had the gaming industry in a chokehold. NVIDIA faced significant backlash over its DLSS 5 technology, which poured AI slop onto some of our favorite Capcom characters. Meanwhile, studios like Nexon have advocated for AI, describing it as a redesign for game development. And Take-Two has been vocal too, with CEO Strauss Zelnick commenting on multiple occasions that generative AI has no part in GTA 6, calling the notion of AI creating a hit game laughable. At the same time, Zelnick has also said he has "actively embraced" AI for handling mundane tasks, while leaving the creative work to humans to produce superb entertainment. Now, only two months later, the publisher and parent company of Rockstar Games has laid off members of its team dedicated to researching and implementing artificial intelligence. Most notably, the company's Head of AI, Luke Dicken, has been let go, along with an undisclosed number of people from the division. Dicken joined Take-Two as Head of Artificial Intelligence in January last year, following a decade at Zynga, which was acquired by the Rockstar Games owner in 2022. Less than 18 months into the role, he revealed on LinkedIn that he and Take-Two were parting ways. Spotted by Kotaku, Dicken used the post to appeal to others in the industry to consider his teammates for open roles. "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," he wrote. "We've been developing cutting edge technology to support game development for 7 years. These folks know how to match innovation and novel problem solving approaches with strong product design to create systems that empower people throughout the development workflow." While Dicken didn't specify the exact number of people leaving, at least four others posted similar announcements on LinkedIn, including the director of AI research, the senior manager of SRE, and two senior data scientists. The timing makes the layoffs difficult to read. Zelnick had acknowledged that AI had the potential to support game development, even if it couldn't just create a game at the push of a button. Now, all of a sudden, a major AI team layoff doesn't exactly align with that sentiment. What Take-Two's generative AI strategy looks like going forward is anyone's guess. But it is interesting to see the company let go of its AI leads at a time when most layoffs have been justified by studios replacing people with AI tools. It shows just how confident the company is in delivering hit titles without leaning on such technology.

Take-Two Reshuffles Its AI Team: 'It's Truly Disappointing'

The AI division was working on 'cutting edge technology' to support game development The head of Take-Two Interactive's AI team has seemingly been laid off, along with an undisclosed number of other employees working on leveraging AI at the company that owns Rockstar Games, 2K, and Zynga. The reorg comes despite CEO Strauss Zelnick saying the parent-publisher is "actively embracing generative AI." "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," Luke Dicken, who became Take-Two's head of AI in early 2025 after a decade at Zynga, wrote on LinkedIn on Thursday. He added, "We’ve been developing cutting edge technology to support game development now for 7 years. 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." Much of Take-Two's AI team appears to have been established out of Zynga's existing applied AI department. Take-Two acquired the mobile gaming company in 2022 for $12.7 billion but the partnership has struggled to generate new hits. Many industry colleagues of Dicken's shared their shock at the news of the layoffs. Take-Two declined to comment. Last month, the company tried to distance itself from tools like Google's Genie after its stock price took a hit from investors concerned that generative AI would allow anyone to make world class games without massive development teams. "Genie is early in its iteration at this point and trying to make a comparison to a game engine is just reallyâ€"they're not even in the same ballpark. Genie is not a game engine," Take-Two president Karl Slatoff said at the time. While CEO Straus Zelnick has repeatedly poured cold water on the idea that genAI could make the next Grand Theft Auto, he recently confirmed the company is all in on exploring how to incorporate the technology into game development. "As it happens now, we're actively embracing generative AI, he said during a recent investor call. "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." But the industry's embrace of AI has also sparked a backlash among players. Nvidia took a big hit in March when it revealed how its upcoming DLSS 5 graphics tech would slopify NPCs in popular games. Even Arc Raiders, which sold millions of copies and won critical acclaim despite NPCs voiced by genAI, recently started replacing those artificial voices with real human recordings.

Take-Two Has Reportedly Laid Off its AI Team, Including the Department Head

Spotted by Kotaku (via PC Gamer), the now-former head of AI for Take-Two, Luke Dicken, shared on his personal LinkedIn page, "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." Dicken's comments seem to imply that his entire department, or at least the people who reported to him, have also been cut, but it's unclear exactly how many former Take-Two developers have been impacted by these cuts. "We've been developing cutting edge technology to support game development now for seven years," Dicken added. "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." Take-Two has reportedly declined to comment on the situation, but these cuts are at the very least curious, especially when Take-Two's chief executive officer, Strauss Zelnick, has seemingly tried to walk a line of being open to GenAI tools while also being one of the few c-suite executives out there adamant that GenAI will not be the solution to creating hit games, especially if you're talking about creating hits on the scale of GTA. "On the topic of AI, I've been enthusiastic since the beginning," Zelnick told investors in February during a recent financial report. "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." During that same briefing, though, Zelnick was clear that not only did Rockstar not use GenAI tools for Grand Theft Auto VI, it does not need to, nor should it. "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 Grand Theft Auto 6, GenAI 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, neighborhood by neighborhood. They're not procedurally generated, they shouldn't be. That's what makes great entertainment." Then, just last month, Zelnick went further in an interview with The Game Business, where he laid out the clear limitations that those who have drunk the GenAI Kool-Aid seem to miss. "I think the bear case for big entertainment companies is somehow that AI tools will mean everyone can create hits, but that doesn't stand to reason. These tools may help you create assets, but that won't help you create hits." "The notion that somehow new tools would allow an individual to push a button and generate a hit and bring it to millions of consumers around the world, it's a laughable notion. It's just never been the case with entertainment. Right now [in music] there are programs that allow you to put out a prompt and get a professionally recorded song spit back out at you. It sounds like a song, but I defy you to listen to it more than once. It's great to send as a greeting card to your partner on their birthday, but that's about it." It's unclear where these cuts leave Take-Two and its AI/GenAI strategy going forward, but if there's any major publisher out there that could survive without going all-in on GenAI like other companies, it's Take-Two, who are likely about to enjoy another decade-plus of having one of if not the best-selling game in their portfolio every year, once GTA VI is finally out, and even if it got delayed again, GTA V would probably still sell another million copies in the meantime. And that's just one of the major franchises that hit the top of the sales charts every year under Take-Two's belt.

GTA 6 Publisher Take-Two Parts Ways with AI Head Before Game Release

Take-Two has yet to issue an official statement on these layoffs. As artificial intelligence rears its generative head in game development, Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of GTA 6 creator Rockstar, has seemingly reshuffled its in-house AI department. The company's CEO, Strauss Zenlick, previously stated that Take-Two will implement generative AI where efficiency gains can be made. But despite these intentions, T2 has now chosen to lay off its Head of AI, as well as an undisclosed number of employees. Information about the reshuffle comes from the LinkedIn page of Luke Dicken, who took over as Take-Two's Head of AI last year. "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," announced Dicken in a recent LinkedIn post. He further added that his team had been "developing cutting-edge technology to support game development now for 7 years." Take-Two has yet to comment on the layoffs. Before being hired by T2, Dicken and his team had spent years at Zynga, figuring out the best ways to leverage AI in video game development. Given the industry's collective push to embrace AI, his dismissal comes as a surprise. That being said, it's worth noting that Take-Two's stance on the technology has been more measured than that of other publishers. While the company has acknowledged potential efficiency gains, its CEO recently stated AI could never develop a game like GTA 6. In fact, Zelick has repeatedly emphasized the need for human creativity to be the primary driver behind game development. It will be interesting to see how Take-Two's shareholders respond to these layoffs, especially in light of the CEO's comments. For the time being, it appears that there is very little AI use in GTA 6. The timing of these layoffs is also interesting, given the current climate of AI adoption. In the past few weeks alone, we have learned about Capcom's AI policy, which the company claims will boost productivity and efficiency. We've also seen how generative AI can actively degrade the quality of video games, thanks to Nvidia's DLSS 5 showcase. The layoffs also come mere months before the highly anticipated release of GTA 6. This isn't the only recent case of Take-Two trimming its staff either, as its subsidiary, Rockstar, controversially dismissed employees suspected of leaking confidential information back in November. That specific round of layoffs included senior members who had been working on GTA 6 for years, leading to an alleged morale collapse at Rockstar. So, what are your thoughts on AI usage in game development? Let us know in the comments below.