[STEAM] Larian CEO Responds to Divinity Gen AI Backlash: 'We Are Neither Releasing a Game With Any AI Components, Nor Are We Looking at Trimming Down Teams to Replace Them With AI'

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This morning, the news broke that Larian Studios, developer of Baldur's Gate 3 and the upcoming, just-announced Divinity, is apparently using generative AI behind the scenes for things like concept art and placeholder text. The backlash has been swift and loud from the gaming community, and now Larian founder and game director Swen Vincke is responding to clarify his remarks, affirming that Larian is "neither releasing a game with any AI components, nor are we looking at trimming down teams to replace them with AI," and that AI is "something we are constantly discussing internally through the lens of making everyone's working day better, not worse."

The original news comes from a

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with Vincke. In it, Vincke admits that Larian is "pushing hard" [Bloomberg's phrasing] on generative AI, even though it hasn't led to big gains in efficiency. Specifically, the studio is using the technology to "explore ideas, flesh out PowerPoint presentations, develop concept art and write placeholder text." [Bloomberg's phrasing].

Vincke reassures that there won't be any AI-generated content in the final version of Divinity. "Everything is human actors; we're writing everything ourselves." But it sounds like this approach isn't going over smoothly with everyone. Bloomberg's piece acknowledges that some internally at Larian have pushed back, though Vincke says, "I think at this point everyone at the company is more or less OK with the way we're using it."

This news hasn't gone over super well with the community, though. On Bluesky, Larian is

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by a number of individuals across the game development community, including some former Larian employees. "consider my feedback: i loved working at

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until AI,"

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, an environment artist and former Larian employees. "reconsider and change your direction, like, yesterday. show your employees some respect. they are world-class & do not need AI assistance to come up with amazing ideas."

The Divinity and Baldur's Gate 3 communities have a somewhat more divided reaction, with some defending its use for concepting, though there's still a significant amount of backlash. A few commenters have pointed out that games

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suffered from significant fan anger over discovered generative AI use, but are willing to forgive Larian for the same offense.

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In response to this backlash, Vincke has issued IGN a lengthy follow-up response, which we've published here in full:

We’ve been continuously increasing our pool of concept artists , writers and story-tellers, are actively putting together writer rooms, casting and recording performances from actors and hiring translators. Since concept art is being called out explicitly - we have 23 concept artists and have job openings for more. These artists are creating concept art day in day out for ideation and production use. Everything we do is incremental and aimed at having people spend more time creating. Any ML tool used well is additive to a creative team or individual’s workflow, not a replacement for their skill or craft. We are researching and understanding the cutting edge of ML as a toolset for creatives to use and see how it can make their day-to-day lives easier, which will let us make better games. We are neither releasing a game with any AI components, nor are we looking at trimming down teams to replace them with AI. While I understand it's a subject that invokes a lot of emotion, it's something we are constantly discussing internally through the lens of making everyone's working day better, not worse. This discussion comes amid a slate of interviews with Vincke

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, at

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last week. We had our own interview with Vincke, which you

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, and elsewhere Vincke has confirmed Divinity

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. We've been slowly compiling

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.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].

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