Elon Musk announced on the social media platform X that his xAI game-development studio plans to release a “great” game powered by Grok AI before the end of next year, sparking controversy among gamers.
The announcement was made through a quote-post of a clip showcasing a game styled after the Battlefield series, reportedly created using Grok. However, the news has been met with backlash from fans of Cyberpunk 2077, a popular game released nearly five years ago.
The controversy centers around an upcoming title that appears to draw inspiration from the CD Projekt Red game and potentially copies its assets. Video-game content creator LegacyKillaHD posted a clip on X showing a Cyberpunk 2077-esque game rendered entirely in Grok, commenting, “What if you played Cyberpunk 2077 but it was soulless dogs*** slop AI.” LegacyKillaHD also observed that some assets in the clip seem to be taken from the original game.
The reaction to the clip was mixed, with one user responding, “He’s still bitter they wouldn’t give him a cameo,” referencing reports that Musk had requested a role in Cyberpunk 2077 that was not fulfilled. The potential release from xAI has been described as an ambitious prediction, given the current limitations of generative AI technology in rendering complete video games with the detail and coherence achieved by human developers.
Early demonstrations of games produced by Grok have shown simplistic gameplay, typically featuring a character running forward with a gun and minimal other activity. The development of generative AI has raised ethical concerns, as companies have been accused of using copyrighted works to train their models without permission, and some tools allow users to reproduce those copyrighted materials.
Furthermore, environmental issues are a significant factor, as the data centers required to power these AI tools consume substantial amounts of water and electricity. It remains uncertain whether xAI’s first AI-powered video game will actually be released.
