Over the past 25 years, Grand Theft Auto has been praised as one of the best written series available to play. While many love the games’ quirky NPC dialogue chains, GTA publisher Straus Zelnick believes the games’ dialogue could be even better with AI.
Speaking at the Paley International Council Summit, via Inverse, Zelnick revealed that he believes AI-generated NPC dialogue is the future. The Take-Two CEO also claimed that the scripted NPCs fans have loved for decades are “not very interesting”.
With GTA VI finally announced and a trailer shortly on the horizon, Zelnick refused to mention if the upcoming open world title uses any form of generative AI. However, he believes the addition of AI-generated dialogue is the future.
“You’re a playable character, you’re interacting with the non-playable character. That interaction is currently scripted,” Zelnick said. And the non-playable characters are generally not very interesting. You could imagine all the NPCs becoming really interesting and fun.”
Take-Two isn’t the only publisher looking at incorporating artificial intelligence into its video games. For example, French publisher Ubisoft is looking into adding AI generated dialogue into upcoming Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Watch Dogs titles.
Furthermore, Microsoft has revealed that it wants to introduce AI-generated characters into Xbox games in the future. Instead of well-written scripted characters, AI-powered NPCs may be able to comment on your actions as you play.
Grand Theft Auto VI likely won’t make use of generative AI elements, especially seeing as the game has been in development for a number of years. However, seeing as the controversial GTA Trilogy remasters made use of AI technology to poorly upscale textures, GTA VI could include some AI elements.
Grand Theft Auto VI is currently in development for Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PlayStation 5. The game is expected to launch on console next year with a PC port released sometime afterward.