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It’s hard to nail down the exact cost of making GTA 6, with reports placing it in the astronomical billion-dollar region. Those rumored figures alone secure its spot as the most expensive game ever made, and it will hold on to that title even after the release of GTA 7, according to an ex-Rockstar developer.

The developer in question is Obbe Vermeij, who served as the technical director at Rockstar and worked on several GTA games, including GTA: San Andreas, GTA: Vice City, and GTA 4. During a recent appearance on the Kiwi Talkz podcast, Vermeij offered his two cents on GTA 6’s production and laid out his predictions for its eventual follow-up.

The developer predicted that “GTA 7 will be cheaper to make than GTA 6” since “a lot of that stuff (development) is going to be taken over by AI whether we want it or not.” He added, “So, I think these banks of artists that are just building massive maps or massive cutscenes, I think some of that will be taken over by AI in the next, you know, five years or so.”

Vermeij also issued a general prediction for the games industry, saying the “bulk of the work (game development) is probably going to be replaced by AI,” including the creation of characters and conversations, which could result in some cost savings.

Even in this hypothetical AI-driven landscape, Vermeij conceded that “higher-level creative stuff” will be done by artists. He stated, “I don’t think AI will be doing the creative part. You’re still gonna have artists setting the style and the look, and you’re still gonna have writers writing the story. I don’t think AI can do that.”

His quotes come at a perilous time for the games industry, and just days before some sizable layoffs at Xbox, which were reportedly tied to a shift toward AI automation. With that being said, Rockstar is yet to issue any statements about the use of AI in GTA 6 or future titles.

During a CNBC interview in February, Take-Two chief Strauss Zelnick stated that “we (Take-Two) believe in protecting and paying human beings, and we believe we ought to pay for their work if it’s replicated by AI after their work is done.” He also stressed that the “creative genius is human,” which might just hint at the company’s current plans around AI integration in game development.

With GTA 6 spending a few extra months in the oven (thanks to an unceremonious delay), it will be interesting to see just how much the game’s development ends up costing. Be sure to leave your best guesses on its cost in the comments below.

A built-in charger for a few extra port is a big plus, especially if you’re looking to declutter and charge several devices at once. Even better is that same charger being used with laptops, tablets, smartphones, and more. That’s exactly what the Anker Prime charger delivers, and right now it’s on all-time low during Amazon Prime Day. What makes this deal fantastic is that it’s open to everyone, not just Prime members, so there’s no subscription to pay to get the discount.

The Anker 100W 3-port Prime charger costs $49, down from its normal price of $69: This 29% price cut provides a fast and quality charging option at an affordable price if you need to charge multiple devices in a time-efficient way. With three ports (two USB-C and one USB-A), this charger can deliver up to 100W of total output, which makes it powerful enough to handle everything from a MacBook to the latest smartphones.

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100W 3-Port Block Charger

With this charger, you can fast charge multiple devices at the same time. Each USB-C port is capable of delivering a full 100W which means you can charge a 14-inch MacBook Pro from zero to 50% in just 30 minutes. This level of speed is a game-saver if you work from your laptop and need to top up quickly between meetings or flights. The third socket, a USB-A, provides you with even greater convenience so you can charge older devices or accessories that are still not on the USB-C bandwagon.

The thin design is also a huge plus: The charger is foldable prongs and it fits well into a bag or even a pocket and is perfect for travel or everyday use. Despite its tiny size, it’s built to last with thicker prongs for a better hold and a drop-proof design that can handle life on the go. The design is slim so it fits comfortably into the wall without shifting or falling out and you can count on it to keep on charging no matter where you leave it.

Anker Prime Charger is designed to work with a wide range of devices including MacBook Air and Pro, iPad Pro and Air, iPhone series, Galaxy S25 Series, Pixel phones, and even wearables like the Apple Watch and Galaxy Watch. Whether you’re charging a laptop, a phone or a tablet, you’ll have the right port and enough power to get the job done.

If you want to charge all of your devices with a single powerful charger, this Prime Day deal is one not to miss.

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Meta is asking users to grant its AI access to their unpublished photo libraries as it tests a new feature on Facebook, as first reported by TechCrunch. The company, which also owns Instagram, has admitted to using photos and text from public posts since 2007 to train its generative AI models, raising concerns about how Meta might use expanded access to personal information.

Some Facebook app users are encountering pop-ups asking them to grant Meta AI access to their camera rolls for “cloud processing.” The apparently new feature uses AI to “restyle” photos, group images by themes, like “birthdays or graduations,” and make “personalized creative ideas, like travel highlights and collages.” The notification says that Meta will periodically “select media” from users’ camera rolls based on time, location, and theme. It will not be used for “ad targeting,” it says.

In a statement to Hyperallergic, the company denied that it is using data from users’ photo libraries to train its AI models. However, Meta’s AI Terms of Service, to which users must accept in order to access the service, reserves the right to use “personal information” to “improve AIs and related technology.”

“By tapping ‘Allow,’ you agree to Meta’s AI Terms,” the feature’s pop-up states when users attempt to upload a Story on the app. “Media and facial features can be analyzed by Meta AI. To create ideas, we’ll use info like date and presence of people or objects.”

Meta introduced the function with three visual examples at the top, including an apparently enhanced photo of the Eiffel Tower, a trio wearing saturated clothes, and a digital collage titled “weekend recap.”

“We’re exploring ways to make content sharing easier for people on Facebook by testing suggestions of ready-to-share and curated content from a person’s camera roll,” a Meta spokesperson told Hyperallergic in a statement. “These suggestions are opt-in only and only shown to you — unless you decide to share them — and can be turned off at any time. Camera roll media may be used to improve these suggestions, but are not used to improve AI models in this test.”

The spokesperson did not provide an on-the-record response to questions about whether the new feature would be rolled out on its other platforms, when it was introduced, or if it would use data collected from unpublished images to train AI in the future

In the United States, Meta was not required to notify users that it was using public posts to train their AI, according to the New York Times. There are no opt-out options for US users, either. In Europe, however, stricter laws allow those on Instagram and Facebook to opt out of Meta’s data scraping project.

Artists have long raised concerns over the practice of training AI on publicly available images on the internet more generally, which they say allows the artificial intelligence models to replicate their artistic style. Some argue that the generative technology’s learned ability to mimic styles of artists could be detrimental to artists’ livelihoods.