A lot of people are hyped for the release of Grand Theft Auto VI in November, but not Elon Musk. After around eight years of development, GTA VI is widely expected to be the biggest game of all time, but the CEO of Tesla reckons AI could generate it "in a few seconds", perhaps before it comes out in seven months' time.
The CEO of Take-Two Interactive, knowing something about video games, says otherwise. If AI could make GTA VI, it could also make Elon Musk obsolete, he says.
This was likely said out of spite with the history Rockstar has had with Elon Musk and X đ pic.twitter.com/oFq56Os4ZrApril 18, 2026
The story began back in January in a series of exchanges on X, which appears to prioritise its owner's posts over others. Elon, who's been dubbed a "fake gamer" for allegedly using shared accounts to achieve high rankings in games like Path of Exile 2 and Diablo IV, agreed there was a chance that "AI will let anyone generate their own GTA 6 in a few minutes, before GTA 6".
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney also chimed in, presumably in jest, suggesting that "text-to-GTA" was the next logical step for AI after "text-to-image and text-to-video". Elon then doubled down, saying a text prompt wouldn't even be necessary: "AI will figure what video game you'd like best."
Elon's concept of timescales can sometimes be dubious. In late 2025, he claimed xAI would release a âgreat AI-generated video gameâ by the end of 2026. We've not seen any sign of it yet, but then Elon also claimed Tesla would have a fleet of a million fully autonomous robotaxis by 2020... and that the Cybertruck would be a boat.
Strauss Zelnick, the head of GTA developer Rockstarâs parent company, brought the South African billionaire's AI pipedreams back down to Earth during a conversation at the Semafor World Economy 2026.
As noticed by @GTAGolden_ in the post above, Strauss said: "The richest man on earth, Elon Musk, knows a little something about AI last time I checked. He has unlimited financial resources and he has unlimited human resources and he has apparently an unlimited number of ideas. He knows his way around AI.
"The man works 20 hours a day. If AI were to take anyoneâs job, wouldnât it take his job? The richest guy on earth. Wouldnât that be job number one for AI to take? Why is he so busy? And, by the way, why am I working harder than ever despite the fact that I totally accepted AI into every part of my life?"
He also went on to speculate that Elon Musk could be a simulation. You can see the full panel discussion below.
There's been no lack of GTA-inspired AI content posted online in the build up to the GTA VI release, but crucially they are not games. They are short videos.
While Strauss has said that Take-Two is using AI to speed up "mundane" processes, he's said that Rockstar is not using generative AI to create art or assets for GTA VI.
In an interview with Gamesindustry.biz published in February, he said: "Do I think [AI] tools by themselves create great entertainment products? No, there's no evidence that that's the case, and it won't be the case in the future. Specifically in regard to GTA VI, Generative AI has zero part in what Rockstar Games is building.
"Their worlds are handcrafted. That's what differentiates them. They're built from the ground up, building by building, street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood. They're not procedurally generated; they shouldn't be. That's what makes great entertainment."
It's not the first time Elon has criticised GTA as a franchise. He once claimed to have stopped playing GTA V because he couldn't bring himself to kill a cop. Some have suggested that there's an element of sour grapes at work and that Elon hasn't forgiven Rockstar for launching the GTA VI trailer on YouTube instead of on X.
What do you think? Would AI be able to do a better job than Elon Musk has done at X and Tesla?
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