On April 2nd, 2026, Luke Dicken, who was the head leader of Take-Two’s AI team, announced he had been laid off, along with an unknown number of people who were part of his team. This is a strange outcome, since not too long ago, the CEO of Take-Two, Strauss Zelnick, said he hoped AI would become a creative force. “Just a reminder, our strategy has three parts: be the most creative, be the most innovative, and be the most efficient company in the entertainment business. nd generative AI squarely falls within the category of innovation and is already moving into the category of efficiency,”
As of the time of this article, there is no known reason as to why Take-Two laid off Luke Dicken, its head of the AI team, and an unknown portion of his team. Only the words of Luke are what is known.” 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.” In the post, Luke goes on to talk about his time with Take-Two and says he will take some time to make a reflective post about his time there. “We’ve been developing cutting edge technology to support game development now for 7 years. These folks know how to match innovation and novel problem solving approaches with strong product design chops to create systems that empower people throughout the development workflow.”
The gaming industry is no stranger to layoffs, as many companies have seen more layoffs in recent years, such as Crystal Dynamics and Wildlight Entertainment. And even though this set of layoffs is related to very controversial AI, it’s sad to see many people lose jobs they’ve held for years. It is strange that this set of layoffs occurred while the CEO was looking forward to AI, and no official response from Take-Two has been issued. All we can do is wait.