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

The studio behind hit role-playing games like Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity: Original Sin recently teased its next major project, generating a wave of excitement within the industry. However, follow-up comments from the company's figurehead have introduced clarity to the discussion, focusing on the team's stance toward AI tools.

AI as a Creative Assistant, Not a Substitute

In a new message, Swen Vincke outlined that the team is utilizing AI technology for specific preliminary tasks. These involve fleshing out presentation materials, creating initial concept art, and drafting draft dialogue.

Crucially, Vincke emphasized that the shipping assets in the game will be crafted exclusively by real writers. "Larian is developing all the content in-house," he said.

Our studio is actively growing our roster of storytellers and are currently forming dedicated writer rooms.

Since this area is being particularly called out — we right now have over twenty artistic staff and have roles to fill for additional creatives.

All our efforts we do is additive and designed to enabling creatives to spend greater focus on making content.

Any ML tool implemented properly is supplementary to a artist's workflow, not a substitute for their talent.

Tempering Reactions with Clear Intent

The news of employing this technology at first provoked backlash among a segment of the fanbase. In response, Vincke offered more elaboration on online platforms.

"At Larian, we employ machine learning to explore references, just like we use the internet and reference books," he explained. "In the initial brainstorming phase we use it as a basic framework for structure which we then substitute with authentic artwork."

He noted, "Larian brings on creatives for their creative vision, not for their capacity to execute what a AI generates."

Three Pillars of Practical Application

Vincke had in the past outlined the team's practical strategy to AI and ML, categorizing its use into key pillars:

• Automation of Tedious Tasks: This encompasses refining animations, dialogue cleanup, and pipeline-specific tasks like adapting animations for different models.
• Rapid Prototyping ('White Boxing'): Using tools to quickly build simple mock-ups of scenarios to test concepts before full development.
• Future Potential for Gameplay: Exploring how AI could in the future create emergent reactivity, particularly in simulating unforeseen permutations in a vast role-playing world.

He clearly affirmed that central narrative domains — such as visual art — are not areas where the company is replacing creative involvement. Conversely, Larian is recruiting more in these very fields.

"We are neither launching a game with any AI components, nor planning on reducing creatives to replace them with artificial intelligence," Vincke summarized.