Rockstar co-founder says he's 'less scared than a lot of people' of AI: 'If you use it to try and substitute for creativity, it's going to be really generic'

Dan Houser speaks during In Conversation with Dan Houser: Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, and now American Caper at 2025 Los Angeles Comic Con at Los Angeles Convention Center on September 27, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.

(Image credit: Chelsea Guglielmino / Getty Images)

Despite building a career on writing, Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser says he's "less scared than a lot of people" about LLMs and AI worming their way into videogame development and beyond.

Speaking on the Lex Fridman podcast, Houser was asked how he felt about the recent uptick in large language models and the increasing quality in how they're able to write. "I'm not that afraid of them for large-scale concepts," Houser said. "I don't think they're going to be very good at that." He said that LLMs "can't really come up with good new ideas," adding: "If you're not a very good concept artist, you're in a lot of trouble. If you have original ideas, I think you're fine."

When it comes to their human-like writing abilities, Houser reckons they still have a long way to go. "I also think they've done the first 90% of the work to sound human, 95% possibly in some areas," he said. "The last 5% is going to end up being about 95% of the work. I think the last bit with tech—in my experience, with things like facial animation—the last bits and pieces take far longer than the first bit.

"And so I'm probably a hideous Luddite, but I'm less scared than a lot of people. I think you're going to end up with a lot of work that looks the same … If you've got talent, I think you're going to be fine." Ultimately, Houser thinks that they're not "going to come up with magic" but will be "fantastic at coming up with really cheap, decent stuff."

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Mollie spent her early childhood deeply invested in games like Killer Instinct, Toontown and Audition Online, which continue to form the pillars of her personality today. She joined PC Gamer in 2020 as a news writer and now lends her expertise to write a wealth of features, guides and reviews with a dash of chaos. She can often be found causing mischief in Final Fantasy 14, using those experiences to write neat things about her favourite MMO. When she's not staring at her bunny girl she can be found sweating out rhythm games, pretending to be good at fighting games or spending far too much money at her local arcade.

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