Larian Studios Takes a Firm Stand on AI in Recent Reddit AMA
Larian Studios’ CEO Swen Vincke and the creative team recently engaged in an AMA on Reddit to clarify their approach for the upcoming Divinity game, especially regarding the use of generative AI—a hot topic in the gaming world. When asked about the role of generative AI in their development process, Vincke was straightforward: “There is not going to be any GenAI art in Divinity.” This statement comes amid ongoing discussions about the appropriateness of AI in creative fields, particularly after some notable games faced backlash for incorporating AI-generated content. A prime example is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which had its Indie Game Awards revoked after it was discovered that AI-generated assets were used during development, breaching strict no-AI policies, even though those assets were later removed.
During the AMA, Vincke acknowledged that earlier conversations about experimenting with AI tools for concept art had caused some confusion. To clarify their position, the studio has decided to completely avoid generative AI in the creation of concept art for Divinity. “We’ve decided to refrain from using genAI tools during concept-art development. That way, there can be no discussion about the origin of the art,” Vincke explained. He emphasized the importance of ensuring the source of the art is clear. “That said, we continuously strive to improve the speed of our experimentation. The more iterations we can achieve, the better the gameplay tends to be. We believe GenAI can assist with this, so we’re exploring its potential across various departments. Our goal is to refine ideas more quickly, leading to a more focused development cycle, less waste, and ultimately, a higher-quality game.”
Vincke also clarified that any AI model used would be trained on data or art owned by Larian itself. Fans were eager for more details, asking if the no-AI policy applied solely to concept art or if it extended to other creative aspects like writing. They referenced previous discussions about using AI for placeholder text and expressed concerns about its potential impact on final content. Larian’s writing director, Adam Smith, confirmed, “The stance applies to writing as well. We don’t have any text generation touching our dialogues, journal entries, or other writing in Divinity.” He elaborated that using AI for placeholder text had proven unhelpful after testing. “We had a limited group experimenting with tools to generate text, but the results hit a 3/10 at best, and those tools are for research purposes, not for use in Divinity. Even my worst first drafts—and there are many—are at least a 4/10 (though Swen might disagree), and the amount of iteration needed to reach our desired quality is significant.”
Earlier last year, Vincke mentioned in an interview that the studio was utilizing machine-learning tools to automate “tasks nobody wants to do,” emphasizing their use solely to streamline workflow. As of now, there is no release date for Divinity, and Larian is feeling the pressure to follow up on the tremendous success of Baldur’s Gate 3.
