Elon Musk says xAI will release an AI-generated game that's "great" before the end of 2026. The claim elicited polarizing reactions from Twitter users, with some mocking and criticizing the very idea of playing something conjured up by an artificial intelligence model.
The use of generative AI in video game development has been on the rise throughout the 2020s, closely following technological advancements in the field and mimicking similar trends in other industries. In November 2024, Elon Musk announced plans to have his company, xAI, start an AI game studio that will "make games great again."
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XAI's First 'Great AI-Generated Game' Coming in 2026, Musk Claims
Nearly a year later, Elon Musk's AI game studio is said to be making some progress. That's according to the billionaire himself, who has taken to X—formerly Twitter—on October 6 to claim xAI "will release a great AI-generated game" before the end of 2026. The promise was attached to a retweet of nondescript modern military shooter footage created with Grok Imagine, xAI's generative AI tool for making multimedia. The clip was posted by Twitter user DogeDesigner, also known as cb_doge, a well-known figure in the Dogecoin community whom some have long suspected is Musk himself.
Gamers Seemingly Aren't Thrilled With the Idea of an AI-Generated Game
Social media reactions to Musk's announcement appear to skew negative. The top responses to his tweet are all either critical of the idea or posting off-topic memes. Many from the former group questioned why anyone would play an AI-generated game, in addition to mocking the footage Musk retweeted for looking "generic" and "soulless." Its soft gunshot sounds have also attracted some criticism. While the wording of Musk's pledge suggests he was talking about a video game fully created from a generative AI prompt, the billionaire never went into any concrete details on the matter. The backlash sparked by the announcement aligns with broader industry trends, as consumers have long criticized even much more limited uses of AI in game development.
Given the current state of technology, Musk’s promise of a "great" AI-generated game materializing in 2026 appears ambitious at best and unrealistic at worst. Although xAI isn't the only company currently exploring the idea of fully AI-generated games, no one has yet released anything that would fit that bill while being considered playable by the general public, or even just tech enthusiasts.
Over the years, Musk has developed a reputation for overpromising on deadlines. The Tesla Full Self-Driving (FSD) system is one of the most well-known examples of this habit, with Musk spending the better part of the last decade insisting that it was on the horizon. He made similar lofty claims about The Boring Company's Hyperloop transportation system, Tesla Model 3, and SpaceX's Mars colonization efforts, among other initiatives.