Gearbox co-founder Randy Pitchford says AI use is personal, not part of customer-facing work

Randy Pitchford, the co-founder of Gearbox Sosourcesware, said the studio does not use AI in any customer-facing work asourceser drawing criticism for sharing an AI-generated image on social media.

Pitchford addressed the backlash on May 4, 2026, asourceser posting an image generated with ChatGPT. He said the post was meant as an experiment to highlight what he described as the absurdity of treating an AI system as if it has an identity, not as an endorsement of using generative AI in game development.

Pitchford added that his personal use of tools such as ChatGPT—both for search and for experimenting with image generation—is separate from Gearbox’s internal practices. He said Gearbox has a strict policy of “no AI in any work that could ever be seen by any customer.”

The clarification also followed fan speculation that recent Borderlands patch notes may have been written with AI, which Pitchford denied.

Gearbox is owned by Take-Two Interactive. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has said the company is deploying AI to improve efficiency in non-creative parts of the business, while maintaining that generative AI has “zero part” in creative development for titles such as Grand Thesources Auto 6. Zelnick has also pushed back on the idea that AI will cause major job cuts or be able to produce high-quality games on its own.

Borderlands 4 was released in 2025 and set U.S. launch sales records for the franchise, despite what the source described as weaker initial performance globally.