Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser isn’t buying into the AI hype. In a pointed appearance on The Chris Evans Breakfast Show, Houser compared the current wave of artificial intelligence to mad cow disease, warning that unchecked AI will “eventually eat itself.”
Dan Houser doesn’t trust AI with creativity
While promoting his debut sci-fi novel A Better Paradise, Houser was asked about the book’s plot centered on a rogue AI built by game developers and how it relates to real-world AI developments. His take was blunt:
“AI is going to eventually eat itself. The models will scour the internet for information, but the internet is going to get more and more full of information made by the models.”
To illustrate, Houser likened this to feeding cows with cows an obvious reference to the real-world origin of mad cow disease. In his view, AI’s constant recycling of machine-generated content will lead to a collapse in the quality of data.
Not all AI is bad, but it’s “wrong a lot.”
Houser did admit AI has its uses. Certain tasks, he said, are performed “brilliantly.” But that’s where the praise ends. He pointed out that AI is still frequently wrong and that its advocates often overlook those failures when pushing it into creative fields like writing and game design.
A jab at AI’s biggest fans
When asked about AI’s expanding role in storytelling, Houser didn’t hold back. He questioned the motives and credentials of the people driving the technology forward:
“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.”
In Houser’s view, they’re pretending to be “better at being human than you are,” and that’s where the danger lies. He believes this small but influential group is steering creativity in a direction that strips away its core humanity.
Accourding to Dan Houser, game industry veterans push back on AI
Houser isn’t alone in his skepticism. In October, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick called AI nothing more than “metadata with a parlor trick,” emphasizing that it’s useful for business, but fundamentally not creative and never will be.
Coming from one of the minds behind Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto, Houser’s comments carry weight. He helped shape modern game storytelling, and now, he’s warning against handing it over to machines.
AI might be good at mimicking style, but if Houser’s right, it’ll end up chasing its own tail.
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