16 / 663

Take-Two laid off the head its AI division and an undisclosed number of staff

TL;DR

Take-Two Interactive laid off Luke Dicken, the head of its AI division, along with an undisclosed number of team members.

Key Points

  • Dicken confirmed the layoffs himself via LinkedIn, where he also tried to help place his staff in new roles.
  • The team had been working on technologies like procedural content generation and machine learning for game development.
  • Take-Two declined to comment on the layoffs – unusual for a company that had publicly embraced AI integration.
  • The timing is striking: Take-Two had recently signaled plans to actively embed AI into its development pipeline.

Nauti's Take

A company that publicly champions AI and then quietly dismantles its entire AI division sends a deeply contradictory message. Either the team was never truly embedded in the company's core strategy, or the expected results simply didn't materialize – neither reflects well.

Take-Two's refusal to even comment makes it worse. In an industry where every AI move is scrutinized, silence is the worst possible response.

Sources