Take-Two Fires Its Entire AI Team Weeks After CEO Publicly Praised Generative AI

Take-Two Interactive laid off its Head of AI, Luke Dicken, along with multiple members of his team in early April 2026. The cuts arrived just weeks after CEO Strauss Zelnick publicly told investors the company was “actively embracing generative AI.” Take-Two declined to comment when contacted for a statement. Dicken broke the news himself through a public LinkedIn post, and the story quickly became one of the most discussed industry events of the week.

At a Glance

• Company: Take-Two Interactive (parent of Rockstar Games, 2K, Zynga)
• Who Was Cut: Head of AI Luke Dicken and multiple team members
• Team Tenure: Seven years of active AI development
• Official Comment: Take-Two declined to comment
• Stated Reason: “Shifting priorities from upper management”

What Luke Dicken Said

Dicken did not specify the total number of people affected. However, several team members later confirmed their own departures in separate public posts. According to Game Developer’s report on the layoffs, Dicken wrote directly on LinkedIn:

“It’s truly disappointing that I have to share with you that my time with T2 — and that of my team — has come to an end. We’ve been developing cutting edge technology to support game development now for 7 years.”

Dicken listed seven areas of expertise across the affected team. Those areas included procedural content generation, machine learning, and AI systems designed to support developers through the full production workflow. A senior director on the team separately confirmed the cuts came due to “shifting priorities from upper management.” Dicken also asked his network to help his former colleagues find new roles.

The CEO Contradiction

The timing makes this story unusually sharp. Just weeks before the layoffs, Zelnick told investors Take-Two was “actively embracing generative AI.” He pointed to hundreds of ongoing pilots and implementations across the company’s studios. According to PC Gamer’s coverage of the cuts, Zelnick had also stated that generative AI “will not reduce employment, it will increase employment.” The layoffs landed roughly eight weeks later.

However, Zelnick’s position on AI has never been fully consistent. In March 2025, he told investors he was not “worried about AI creating hits” because the technology was “backwards-looking.” He also said at one point that “generative AI has zero part in what Rockstar Games is building” with GTA VI. Therefore, the contradictions did not start with this week’s cuts. They stretch back across more than a year of mixed public messaging.

Where the Team Came From

Much of Take-Two’s AI division grew from Zynga’s applied AI department. Take-Two acquired Zynga in 2022 for $12.7 billion. Dicken joined Take-Two as Head of AI in January 2025 after a decade at Zynga. That means he held the senior role for less than 18 months before the cuts ended his tenure. The wider team had spent seven years building internal development tools before the layoffs dissolved the entire division.

Player Impact

For players, the immediate question is whether this affects GTA VI. Based on available information, the short answer is probably very little. Zelnick had already stated publicly that GTA VI contains no generative AI content. Therefore, the dissolved team’s work does not appear to directly touch the game’s production. However, this also lands in the same week that Rockstar confirmed GTA VI’s third delay to November 19, 2026. Together, both stories paint a picture of a company under significant internal pressure heading into its most important launch in over a decade.

This pattern also extends well beyond Take-Two. In May 2025, EA fired between 300 and 400 staff while its CEO simultaneously reaffirmed the company’s commitment to generative AI. In July 2025, Microsoft cut 9,000 jobs across Xbox and other divisions while investing $80 billion into AI infrastructure. The cycle is now a recognizable industry pattern: announce AI ambitions loudly to investors, fund dedicated teams, then quietly disband them when internal priorities shift.

Verdict

Take-Two’s AI team layoffs matter because they expose a widening gap between what gaming executives say publicly about AI and what they actually do with it internally. According to Engadget’s coverage, Take-Two declined to explain its reasoning publicly. Seven years of team development ended without a formal statement from the company. That silence, combined with the CEO’s repeated public praise for the very technology his company just defunded, speaks clearly enough on its own.