Dan Houser, one of the co-founders of Rockstar Games and the lead writer behind GTA 5, Red Dead Redemption 2, and more, has lent his voice to the debate over AI in game development. In his mind, the people behind such tools aren't exactly among those we should be looking up to, nor necessarily taking guidance from when it comes to creativity.
"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," he told Virgin Radio UK (thanks, GI.Biz). "They're saying we're better at being human than you are and it's obviously not true. That's one of the other things is that humanity is being pulled in a certain direction by a group of people who maybe aren't fully rounded humans."
He goes on to state he believes "AI is eventually going to eat itself," with the bots and tools eventually drawing from work generated by other bots and tools, creating a feedback loop of slop. "As far as I understand it, which is really a superficial understanding, the models scour the internet for information, but the internet is going to get more and more full of information made by the models," he adds. "So it is sort of like when we fed cows with cows and got mad cow disease. They are already running out of data."
What he's referring to is known as the 'dead internet theory,' in which the World Wide Web is populated mostly by AI-generated posts, and the likes of ChatGPT and Google's Gemini are just pulling information from each other's posts. It's a cycle that'll hollow out parts of the internet and make these interfaces functionally useless.
Houser does believe these algorithms "will do some tasks brilliantly," but not everything. That’s a view shared by fellow video games stalwart Hideo Kojima, who believes this tech could help on mundane jobs, but nothing in-depth.
After co-founding Rockstar, Houser went to have an integral role in the development of many of the studio’s hits, including GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2. He's another in a long line of industry vets to comment on AI, including Tim Sweeney, who takes umbrage with Steam's labelling on the subject, and Gabe Newell, who's kinder to the toolset overall.
Since leaving Rockstar in 2020, Houser has founded his own company, Absurd Ventures, which will be making a range of releases, including film and comics, based on his own IP. His first book, A Better Paradise, comes out early next year.
