The Creators of Baldur's Gate 3 Clarifies Its Application of AI Tools for Upcoming Divinity

The studio behind popular role-playing games like Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity: Original Sin recently unveiled its next major project, creating significant hype within the gaming community. However, subsequent comments from the studio's co-founder have brought clarity to the narrative, addressing the developer's philosophy toward machine learning.

Augmenting Workflows, Not Cutting Jobs

In a new clarification, Larian's director outlined that the team is using AI technology for certain preliminary tasks. These include fleshing out presentation materials, producing rough concept art, and creating draft dialogue.

Importantly, Vincke stressed that the end content in the game will be created entirely by human writers. "Larian is writing everything manually," he affirmed.

Our studio is actively increasing our team of concept artists and are actively forming dedicated writer rooms.

Since visual development is being particularly called out — we currently have over twenty artistic staff and have roles to fill for more talent.

All our efforts we do is additive and aimed at letting our team spend greater focus on making content.

Any AI system applied correctly is a boost to a developer's process, never a stand-in for their talent.

Tempering Reactions with Clear Intent

The admission of AI usage initially provoked concern among some the community. In reaction, Vincke offered further clarification on online platforms.

"At Larian, we employ AI tools to gather inspiration, similar to we use search engines and art books," he stated. "During the very early ideation stages we use it as a rough outline for structure which we then swap out with hand-crafted concept art."

He continued, "Larian brings on talent for their creative vision, not for their capacity to replicate what a machine suggests."

Key Areas of AI Integration

Vincke had previously outlined the company's practical approach to this technology, categorizing its use into key functions:

• Streamlining Repetitive Work: This includes refining animations, dialogue cleanup, and pipeline-specific tasks like adjusting assets for various species.
• Fast-Tracked Experimentation: Using technology to speedily create basic mock-ups of scenarios to validate concepts prior to expensive development.
• Future Potential for Gameplay: Exploring how machine learning could one day facilitate new forms of reactivity, especially in simulating dynamic reactions in a detailed game universe.

He specifically noted that core creative areas — like music composition — are are absolutely not fields where the studio is replacing creative involvement. On the contrary, Larian is expanding its staff in these precise roles.

"We are not releasing a game with any AI components, and we are certainly not planning on reducing creatives to swap them out with artificial intelligence," Vincke concluded.