GTA6 taking too long? Musk: AI can generate personalized games in minutes without prompts

Elon Musk agrees: AI will automatically generate GTA6 within minutes in the future, with preferences inferred without prompts. Vercel and Epic Games CEO support “text-to-GTA” technology. However, Take Two CEO emphasizes that game commercial success involves creativity, marketing, and talent; relying solely on AI cannot produce blockbuster hits.

Elon Musk agrees: AI will generate GTA6 within minutes in the future

The highly anticipated release date of “Grand Theft Auto VI” (GTA 6) has been delayed repeatedly, but Elon Musk recently made a surprising statement, agreeing with a prediction that AI could generate GTA6 within minutes in the future. This prediction comes from Guillermo Rauch, CEO of AI tech company Vercel, who jokingly said that before GTA6 launches, there’s a chance for people to generate their own GTA6 using AI in a few minutes. Musk immediately expressed his support for this prediction.

Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games and supporter of generative AI technology, also responded, saying that current AI already has “text-to-image” and “text-to-video” capabilities, so “text-to-GTA” would be a logical next step. This reasoning is not entirely fanciful; AI video generation tools like Sora and Runway can produce several-minute high-quality videos, and image generators like Midjourney and DALL-E have reached levels that can produce hyper-realistic images.

Musk further predicts that in the future, players may not even need to input prompts, as AI will automatically understand and generate the content users prefer. This vision is more radical than simple “text-to-game,” as it implies AI not only understands commands but also actively learns user preferences and makes predictions. If realized, this technology could fundamentally change the gaming industry: players would no longer buy fixed content games but subscribe to AI services, experiencing personalized content every time they play.

From a technical feasibility perspective, Musk’s prediction is not entirely impossible. The development speed of current AI models is indeed astonishing; OpenAI’s GPT series, Google’s Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude are all rapidly iterating. If this pace continues, it’s conceivable that within a few years, AI capable of generating complete games could emerge. However, the “within minutes” timeframe remains highly aggressive; even the most optimistic AI researchers believe it may take 5 to 10 years of technological accumulation.

Elon Musk claims to launch stunning AI games this year

Known for his love of gaming and rumors that he hired others to grind “Path of Exile 2,” Musk declared at the end of last year that his company xAI would release an impressive AI-generated game by the end of this year. He also predicted that AI chatbot Grok 5 would challenge the top human teams in “League of Legends” (LoL), with South Korea’s T1 esports team accepting the challenge.

This declaration is very Musk: ambitious and controversial. xAI was founded in 2023, with its main product being the chatbot Grok. Moving from chatbots to game-generating AI and then to AI capable of challenging professional esports teams represents a huge technological leap. If Grok 5 can indeed beat T1 in LoL, it would mark a revolutionary breakthrough in gaming AI.

However, while Musk often makes predictions, history shows they tend to be overly optimistic. For example, in 2011 he claimed humans would be on Mars within ten years, but that deadline has already passed five years. Similar delays have occurred with fully autonomous driving, Neuralink human trials, and Tesla’s production targets.

Therefore, the market remains cautious about whether xAI can release high-quality AI games within just 11 months. Game development is an extremely complex process involving graphics rendering, physics engines, AI behaviors, level design, storylines, sound, and music. Even if AI can assist in generating some assets, integrating them into a complete, engaging game still requires substantial human effort.

Musk’s predictions seem more like PR strategies to boost xAI’s profile. By setting aggressive goals and timelines, they attract media attention and market expectations. Even if they fall short, the branding effect is achieved. For users interested in GTA6 and AI games, maintaining rational expectations is wiser than blindly believing.

GTA parent company’s pragmatic view: creativity and business cannot be replaced

Compared to optimistic forecasts from AI tech giants, Take Two’s CEO Strauss Zelnick offers a pragmatic perspective. Last year on CNBC’s Squawk Box, he stated that the interactive entertainment industry has long been an innovator in AI technology, already using digital tools for procedural generation and assisted development.

He revealed that Take Two is indeed leveraging AI to improve development efficiency, with initial results showing some success. But this efficiency boost is not about layoffs; it’s about delegating tedious, repetitive tasks to AI so human developers can focus on more interesting and creative work. This approach is more realistic and aligns with current AI capabilities.

In the interview, CNBC’s host further asked Zelnick whether it might be possible in the future for anyone to use AI to produce visuals comparable to GTA6. Zelnick responded that while it’s hard to say it will never be possible long-term, the industry’s moat is not just about graphics.

He pointed out that while AI can now generate images comparable to professional entertainment products, integrating all elements to create a popular blockbuster involves marketing, distribution, and top talent. Therefore, simply generating game assets with AI alone is unlikely to produce a highly successful commercial hit.

Take Two CEO’s view on AI game development

AI Role: Tool to improve efficiency, not a source of creativity

Application: Handle tedious, repetitive tasks to free humans for creative work

Business Moat: Not just visuals, but creativity, marketing, distribution, and talent integration

Human Irreplaceability: Blockbuster hits require human creative soul and business judgment

Practical AI experience from frontline developers

Daniel Vávra, game director of “Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2,” previously pointed out that AI is an inevitable trend in the industry, but its application differs from that envisioned by non-gaming AI tech companies. For example, Adam Smith, chief writer at Larian Studios known for “Baldur’s Gate,” revealed that their team tested AI-generated text, which was of very poor quality. They insist that AI should only be used for automating bug fixing and testing, not replacing writers.

This frontline developer feedback is highly valuable. They have tested AI applications in game development and found that AI-generated scripts lack emotional depth, logical coherence, and cultural sensitivity. Good game stories require understanding human nature, creating conflicts, and building atmosphere—all current AI weaknesses. Therefore, professional writers prefer to use AI only for debugging and testing, leaving creative tasks to humans.

Dan Houser, co-founder of the GTA series, warned that if AI training relies on AI-generated content from the internet, it could fall into a vicious cycle of “AI eating AI,” leading to information distortion and declining quality. This warning highlights a serious problem in current AI development: as AI-generated content proliferates online, future training data will contain more AI content than human-created material. This “AI training AI” cycle could cause output quality to deteriorate over time.

These frontline developer voices echo Zelnick’s view: AI’s true value lies in freeing humans to unleash creativity, not fully replacing human creative spirit. The difference between Musk and game developers reflects a fundamental divide: tech companies see endless potential in AI, while content creators emphasize the irreplaceable nature of human creativity based on practical experience.

For GTA6 players, patience remains necessary as Rockstar carefully refines the game. The era of AI-generated games may arrive, but whether they can still deliver the shock and emotion of the GTA series remains to be seen.