‘If Hits Are Unexpected, Datasets Aren’t Gonna Get You There’ — Take-Two Interactive and Sony Bosses Say That AI Cannot Replace Human Creativity

Strauss Zelnick and Hiroki Totoki, the heads of Take-Two Interactive and Sony Group Corporation, agreed that AI won’t replace humans in the entertainment business during a talk at the Paley International Summit in New York City on Tuesday morning. They did, however, explain that they do see the technology as a valuable tool.

“I don’t think an AI could replace humans because, particularly in the entertainment field, I think creativity is quite important. Creativity is for humans, not AI,” Totoki said. “How to use the technology profile is important. Of course, I encourage my people to use AI in a certain manner, but at [the] same time we try to keep the rights and rights holders and creators and artists.”

“One of our division heads has said to his team, ‘You’re not gonna be replaced by AI, but if you’re not careful you’ll be replaced by someone who knows how to use AI,’” Zelnick said. “I’m fond of saying AI is a collection of datasets, compute, and large language models. That’s what it is. And datasets, by definition, are backward looking. That’s all they are. And creativity, at its best, is forward looking. […]”

“When the first Grand Theft Auto was created, we thought the phrase ‘Grand Theft Auto’ wouldn’t turn into what it’s turned into today,” Zelnick continued, then launching into an anecdote of his stint as president and chief operating officer of 20th Century Fox (now called 20th Century Studios).

“One of the biggest movies I was responsible for, Home Alone — it was completely unexpected. It went into production at Warner Bros. and they put it into turnaround four days into production, which […] never happens. […] Everyone thought it was a disaster. And It turned out to be the highest grossing comedy of all time. So if hits are unexpected, data sets aren’t gonna get you there, no matter how fluent they are.”

AI use in the production pipeline for games, movies, and TV is a hot-button issue. Just this week, a business strategist at Xbox posted (and then deleted) the “truth that nobody wants you to know” about how “gaming is the only industry pretending not to use AI,” and Steam users implored the company to ban AI slop from the next Steam Next Fest. Last week, Epic Games revealed that its new store launcher was vibe coded. But Biddy Blas? AI could never.