Elon Musk has ambitious plans for his artificial intelligence venture, xAI, proclaiming that the company will create a “great” video game by the end of next year.
xAI and Its Innovations
Among its various projects, xAI is best known for the Grok chatbot. Last year, the company launched Aurora, a text-to-image model, allowing Grok to produce images from textual prompts. Building on this, in July 2025, Grok Imagine was introduced, enabling users to create six-second animated clips with audio, also based on text inputs.
Bold Claims About Gaming and Film
Responding to a user on X who showcased a Grok Imagine clip featuring a war-like video game, Musk declared, “The xAI game studio will release a great AI-generated game before the end of next year.” An hour later, he made a similar announcement regarding films, stating that Grok “will make a movie that is at least watchable before the end of next year and really good movies in 2027.”
This timeline might perplex some, especially since AI-generated video has been in development for a while, while AI-generated games are still emerging.
Context of AI in Gaming
Musk has been vocal about the formation of an AI gaming studio, inviting potential developers to get involved. During a stream in February, he said, “If you’re interested in joining us and building AI games, please join xAI. We’re announcing it tonight, let’s go.”
However, xAI is not the only player in this arena. Earlier this year, a notable demonstration from Microsoft showcased a version of Quake 2 entirely powered by generative AI. This demonstration utilized Microsoft’s new generative AI model named Muse, which the company claims can handle “game visuals, controller actions, or both.”
Criticism of AI-Generated Content
Responses to Microsoft’s demo have been largely negative. One user criticized it as merely a vague representation of what playing Quake 2 might look like, stating, “It requires all the same equipment you could instead use to actually play Quake 2 but requires a billion times more electricity.” Another user expressed frustration, saying, “This is absolutely disgusting and spits on the work of every developer everywhere.”
Elon Musk’s Gaming Background
Interestingly, Musk has a history in the gaming industry, having worked at Rocket Science Games during the mid-90s. He is credited in Mega CD titles such as Loadstar: The Legend of Tully Bodine and Cadillacs and Dinosaurs: The Second Cataclysm, which both received average review scores of 53% in gaming magazines at the time, according to the game database MobyGames.
With xAI’s upcoming projects, it will be intriguing to see how they will meld AI technology with gaming and filmmaking.
