Meanwhile, Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two, has also praised artificial intelligence.
VGC wrote about what Zelnick said in two different places. The publisher hinted that Grand Theft Auto VI will not be affected by the SAG-AFTRA strike. This union is made up of US actors who voted 98.32% in favour of authorising a strike over the Interactive Media Agreement, which covers members’ work on games. Although this does not automatically mean that a strike will take place, if SAG-AFTRA members do not get the right terms, they can start a protest immediately. The union has been in talks with Take-Two, Epic Games, Electronic Arts and Activision for a year.
The union says that negotiations so far have failed and that unacceptable terms are being withheld on “some of the issues that matter most to our members, including wages that keep pace with inflation, protections against exploitative uses of artificial intelligence, and basic safety precautions”. Despite this, Zelnick was overly optimistic when discussing Take-Two’s financial performance, saying that the company is fully protected if negotiations fail to produce results.
“Negotiations are expected to resume next week. We’re optimistic, we value all our talent, we value excellent labour relations and we look forward to reaching an agreement that works for everyone. That’s always been my approach. I’ve been involved in labour negotiations in every entertainment industry in my career and they’ve always worked out. In the event that they don’t work out, we’re fully protected,” Zelnick said.
And Inverse reported that Zelnick was present at the Paley International Council Summit, where he praised AI, saying that generative AI can improve interactions and non-playable characters (NPCs), and that he believes scripted NPCs are “generally not very interesting”. “Everybody’s working on that. You’re a playable character, you interact with the non-playable character. That interaction is currently scripted. And the non-playable characters are generally not very interesting. You could see all the NPCs becoming really interesting and fun,” Zelnick said.
Of course, he didn’t say whether this would be used in Grand Theft Auto VI, which will get a trailer in December, but given the money-hungry publisher, it’s a strong possibility.
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