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

The developer behind hit titles like Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity: Original Sin just shown its new project, sparking a wave of excitement within the gaming community. However, recent remarks from the studio's figurehead have introduced nuance to the conversation, focusing on the studio's philosophy toward AI tools.

Augmenting Workflows, Not Cutting Jobs

In a latest message, Larian's director outlined that the developer is employing AI technology for particular preliminary purposes. These encompass fleshing out PowerPoint slides, creating initial visual ideas, and creating placeholder copy.

Importantly, Vincke emphasized that the shipping assets in the game will be created entirely by real creatives. "Our team is creating all the content manually," he affirmed.

We are continuously expanding our team of writers and are actively forming dedicated writer rooms.

As this area is being explicitly mentioned — we right now have 23 visual developers and have roles to fill for additional creatives.

Everything we do is incremental and designed to enabling creatives to spend additional energy on the creative process.

Any ML tool applied correctly is supplementary to a developer's routine, not a substitute for their craft.

Responding to Feedback and Defining the Path

The news of employing this technology initially generated concern among some the fanbase. In reaction, Vincke issued further detail on social media.

"At Larian, we employ these tools to gather inspiration, in the same way we use the internet and reference books," he stated. "During the very early ideation stages we use it as a simple sketch for structure which we then substitute with original illustrations."

He noted, "Our studio recruits artists for their inherent skill, not for their willingness to execute what a AI generates."

Three Pillars of Practical Application

Vincke had previously broken down the team's targeted approach to AI and ML, defining its use into three main functions:

• Automation of Tedious Tasks: Areas like polishing mocap data, audio processing, and pipeline-specific tasks like retargeting animations.
• Accelerated Iteration: Using tools to quickly build rough mock-ups of mechanics to validate concepts ahead of complete production.
• Long-Term Aspirations: Exploring how machine learning could one day facilitate innovative gameplay, especially in creating unforeseen permutations in a detailed game universe.

He explicitly noted that core creative domains — like writing — are are absolutely not areas where the team is replacing creative involvement. In fact, Larian is recruiting more in these precise positions.

"Larian is not launching a game with AI-generated content, nor planning on trimming down creatives to replace them with AI," Vincke concluded.