Take-Two's AI Team Hit with Layoffs

Take-Two Interactive, the gaming behemoth behind studios like Rockstar and Gearbox, has laid off staff from its AI team. Generative AI’s growing presence in the video game industry has sparked widespread fears of layoffs, though these conversations typically revolve around the technology leading to job losses. This latest news from Take-Two adds another wrinkle to the discussion, potentially signaling a move away from the controversial tech while still involving job cuts.

Leading up to this point, Take-Two has had an unusual relationship with artificial intelligence. CEO Strauss Zelnick has told investors the GTA 6 and Borderlands 4 publisher is all in on generative AI, but at the same time, Zelnick has publicly criticized the technology, especially as it pertains to game development. Still, Take-Two has had a dedicated AI team since at least early 2025, but now the future of this department is uncertain.

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Take-Two Has Parted Ways with Its Head of AI

In an April 2 LinkedIn post, former Take-Two Head of AI Luke Dicken announced he had been laid off from the company. Dicken has been in the gaming industry for over a decade and formed an AI team at Zynga years before Take-Two acquired the mobile gaming studio in 2022. After the acquisition, Dicken moved up to Senior Director of AI at Zynga before becoming Head of AI for Take-Two as a whole in 2025. Now that time has come to an end, not just for Dicken but also an unspecified number of his colleagues, as he mentioned his team was also impacted by the layoffs. While the post doesn’t mention how many people have lost their jobs in the shuffle, the wording makes it sound like a considerable chunk of the team, potentially even all of them.

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The sudden cutbacks could reflect a change in priorities for Take-Two. Despite Zelnick’s comments about embracing generative AI in recent earnings calls, the CEO has not been as enthusiastic about the technology as other leaders in the industry. In early 2025, the Take-Two boss called AI an “oxymoron” before going on to say it would not push the company to reduce employment. That statement seems a little ironic in hindsight. Technically, AI has not replaced any workers at Take-Two, but the gaming giant has, in fact, reduced employment related to the technology. Without an official statement from Zelnick or another authority figure at Take-Two, though, it’s difficult to assess what led to these cuts and whether they truly are a response to AI specifically or just a general cost-saving measure.

Take-Two is no stranger to layoffs in the name of efficiency. In 2024, the company shuttered Kerbal Space Program 2 developer Intercept Games as it moved to cut 5% of its global workforce in an effort to save $165 million. Take-Two has yet to comment on these more recent staff reductions, but they could likewise be a measure to lower spending as game development gets more expensive, but consumer spending slows down. Interestingly, that is often the kind of scenario where a company would point to AI as a way to do more with less, but these layoffs have directly impacted Take-Two’s AI professionals.

While plenty of mystery remains around the layoffs, the situation further illustrates how the ongoing debate about AI in game development is not a black-and-white issue. Many fans and developers may celebrate the idea of moving away from AI, but at the same time, it’s possible doing so has led to job losses in this case. On the other hand, there is evidence that AI growth has spurred job losses of its own. It’s a complicated situation, and it’s hard to tell what Take-Two’s latest cuts say about it without more information, but regardless, the layoffs stand as a surprising and unfortunate development.