Rockstar Games co-founder compares AI to 'mad cow disease' - social media has its say

Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser has compared artificial intelligence (AI) to "mad cow disease" and social media users have been reacting to his comments.

Mad cow disease was prominent in the 1980s and 1990s and is a progressive and fatal neurological disorder in cows. It's caused by prions which are abnormal proteins that can be transmitted through animal feed that's contaminated. Scientists believe it may have been caused by cattle being fed meat-and-bone meals that contained prions from other cows or sheep.

Speaking on the Chris Evans Breakfast Show on Virgin Radio UK as part of a media tour for his new book A Better Paradise: Volume One - An Aftermath, when asked if he thinks AI will "end up how people want us to think it might", Houser made his stance clear.

"As far as I understand it, I personally don't think it will," he said. "I think AI is going to eventually eat itself because, as far as I understand it which is a really superficial understanding, the models scour the internet for information - but the internet's going to get more and more full of information made by these models.

"It's sort of like when we fed cows with cows and got mad cow disease. I can't see how the information gets better as they're already running out of data. It will do some tasks brilliantly but it's not going to do every task brilliantly."

Houser's comments were reposted in the Gaming Subreddit and Redditors have been reacting.

One said: "I mean, he is not wrong here... Even though he is the Rockstar co-founder."

"If you want to stop AI, it needs to be done at a federal level," a second claimed. "Problem is, our Government is too busy trying to start a war with Venezuela."

A third commented: "Yeah the biggest thing wrong with AI is the d*****bags trying to use it in the worst ways possible."

A fourth said: "I fully agree with the guy but saying 'as far as I understand it, which is really superficial' while going on a media tour about 'his forthcoming novel that not only explores AI as part of its narrative but is set in the same world as the game his new studio is working on' seems weird lol. If you're going on public record, on a media tour even, about AI, maybe study on it? You don't have to be an expert but don't have a superficial understanding of it."

And a fifth added: "I think there's a huge swathe of senior companies leaderships who just parrot AI. With no idea what it can and can't do?! Just think 'save money, get bonus'."

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