Generative AI may be getting better every year, but it is still nowhere near capable of creating a game like GTA 6, according to a former Rockstar Games developer.

As AI tools continue to become more powerful, there has been plenty of debate about how much of the game development process could eventually be automated.

Some developers are already using AI for certain tasks, while others remain skeptical about whether the technology can ever replace the creative work behind a major AAA game.

For one former Rockstar developer, the answer is pretty clear.

Speaking about GTA 6, the developer explained that there is simply too much human thought and attention behind Rockstar’s games for generative AI to reproduce them.

“It’s so much thought, and love, and care, and detail that goes into this game and simply an AI could not do it.”

And it’s easy to understand the argument when looking at the sheer scale of GTA 6.

GTA 6 Is More Than Just a Massive Open World

On the surface, GTA 6 is an enormous open-world game filled with cars, characters, missions and activities.

But creating something like that involves far more than simply generating a large map.

Rockstar has to design the world, write dialogue, create characters, build missions, animate thousands of interactions, develop vehicle systems, create realistic environments and make sure all of those pieces work together.

Then there are the tiny details.

The way NPCs react to the player, how characters move, how vehicles behave, how the world changes depending on what players do and all the little visual touches that make Vice City and Leonida feel alive.

Those details are often what players remember.

And according to the former developer, that’s exactly where AI falls short.

AI Can Generate Content, But Can It Create GTA 6?

Generative AI has already shown that it can produce impressive images, text, audio and even code.

That has naturally led to questions about whether future AI systems could eventually create entire video games.

But making a game like GTA 6 isn’t simply a matter of generating individual pieces of content.

Someone still needs to decide what the game should feel like.

Rockstar’s developers have spent years making thousands of creative decisions about GTA 6.

Those decisions aren’t necessarily something that can be described in a simple prompt.

It’s the combination of all those choices that creates the final experience.

That’s also why the former developer’s comments focus on “thought,” “love,” “care” and “detail.”

AI might be able to generate something that looks impressive, but replicating the creative direction and years of human decision-making behind a game like GTA 6 is a much bigger challenge.

Rockstar’s Human Touch Is Still a Huge Part of GTA

The comments also highlight why Rockstar’s games have developed such a strong reputation for detail.

Players regularly discover tiny features that they weren’t expecting.

A random NPC might have a unique reaction. A vehicle might behave differently depending on how it is damaged.

Characters can interact with the environment in ways that make the world feel less like a collection of game systems and more like a living place.

GTA 6 appears to be pushing that philosophy even further.

From the way Jason and Lucia interact with each other to the huge number of activities available across Leonida, Rockstar is clearly putting an enormous amount of work into making its next game feel believable.

That doesn’t mean AI will never be capable of creating games on this scale.

Technology is moving incredibly quickly, and what sounds impossible today could become normal years from now.

But for now, at least, one former Rockstar developer believes GTA 6 is far beyond what generative AI can create on its own.

And considering the game’s enormous scope, that’s probably a fair challenge for the AI industry.