Rockstar co-founder compares AI to 'mad cow disease'

[tinrobot]

Last edited Mon Dec 1, 2025, 01:53 PM - Edit history (1)

Rockstar co-founder compares AI to 'mad cow disease,' and says the execs pushing it aren't 'fully-rounded humans'

Asked if AI is going to lead us to the sunlit uplands so many tech 'visionaries' are promising, Houser is unequivocal: "I personally don't think it will, because I think that AI is gonna eventually eat itself, because as far as I understand it—which is really superficial—the models scour the internet for information, but the internet's going to get more and more full of information made by the models. So it's sort of like when we fed cows with cows and got mad cow disease."

Which, I have to admit, is a pretty good simile for the AI craze. That's not to say Houser thinks gen-AI will have completely evaporated a few years from now, more that "It will do some tasks brilliantly, but it's not going to do every task brilliantly." Very sober of him.

Houser's a little more damning in his assessment of the breathless execs currently pushing AI like the second coming. "Humanity is being pulled in a direction by a certain group of people, who maybe aren't fully-rounded humans," Houser told Virgin Radio.

https://www.pcgamer.com/software/ai/rockstar-co-founder-compares-ai-to-mad-cow-disease-and-says-the-execs-pushing-it-arent-fully-rounded-humans/

Sadly, I think this rings true.

The other component is that, as people rely on it more, they will be filling their own brains with AI mad cow disease infected information.

Think for yourselves, people. Don't outsource it to some data center.

(edited to add link)

[Hellbound Hellhound]

1. This is a big concern for us heavy AI users.

I can't speak for anyone else, but this is why I create my own AI and offsite them with no internet access on a completely physically disconnected machine. At this point they're recreating themselves, and operate through a third-party "hub" connected to the net, which examines, filters, and gives me a summary of any and all net-based searches. Then I individually check the sourcing before integrating it into a test-AI. Finally, if the test-AI proves that it's stable and non-contradictory, the test-AI data module is uploaded to the main tower and distributed among the disconnected AI as new information.

With great power comes great responsibility, and all that.

While I can't say anything about how other people use AI, I've learned how to program in four different languages and started using the stock market to good effect since diving into the AI stuff. It's been pretty damn good to me.

[LearnedHand]

2. Do you have a link to your quote?

[tinrobot]

3. Oh, sorry

https://www.pcgamer.com/software/ai/rockstar-co-founder-compares-ai-to-mad-cow-disease-and-says-the-execs-pushing-it-arent-fully-rounded-humans/

[LearnedHand]

4. Thanks!

[mopinko]

5. it's already happening.

i googled 1 of those relentless feel good stories the other day that was clearly not true, but the summery started out w a link to the obviously false fb post.
didnt get a good refutation til the 2nd page of results.

i’d hate to work for snopes these days.

[highplainsdem]

6. He's right.