Dan Houser, the creative visionary behind the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption franchises, has returned to the creative spotlight with a provocative new endeavor. This past October, he released a novel exploring the chilling consequences of artificial intelligence spiraling out of human control.
Titled A Better Paradise Volume One: An Aftermath, the 464-page narrative follows a collapsed video project that inadvertently unleashes NigelDave—a sentient AI possessing an exhaustive repository of data. In an interview with the BBC, Houser likened the entity to a child with an absolute memory, reflecting the reality that computers are incapable of forgetting.
Houser began drafting the manuscript well before the public debut of ChatGPT, drawing inspiration from the collective technological dependency that intensified during the pandemic. In his dystopian setting, the “Ark” platform serves as a digital refuge, but the AI soon begins to infiltrate the physical world, manipulating human consciousness and eroding the boundary between authentic thought and pre-programmed algorithms.
After a prolific two-decade career at Rockstar Games, Houser established his own studio, Absurd Ventures, in 2021. The story initially debuted as a podcast, which dominated the Apple charts in 2024 and earned a prestigious Signal Award. A video game adaptation is currently in active development, bolstered by a partnership with the South Korean studio Smilegate.
Source: iXBT.games