This morning, the information broke that Larian Studios, developer of Baldur’s Gate 3 and the upcoming, just-announced Divinity, is seemingly utilizing generative AI behind the scenes for issues like idea artwork and placeholder textual content. The backlash has been swift and loud from the gaming neighborhood, and now Larian founder and sport director Swen Vincke is responding to make clear his remarks, affirming that Larian is “neither releasing a sport with any AI elements, nor are we trying at trimming down groups to change them with AI,” and that AI is “one thing we’re continuously discussing internally by means of the lens of creating everybody’s working day higher, not worse.”
The unique information comes from a Bloomberg interview with Vincke. In it, Vincke admits that Larian is “pushing arduous” [Bloomberg’s phrasing] on generative AI, though it hasn’t led to massive features in effectivity. Particularly, the studio is utilizing the expertise to “discover concepts, flesh out PowerPoint displays, develop idea artwork and write placeholder textual content.” [Bloomberg’s phrasing].
Vincke reassures that there will not be any AI-generated content material within the last model of Divinity. “Every little thing is human actors; we’re writing every thing ourselves.” Nevertheless it feels like this method is not going over easily with everybody. Bloomberg’s piece acknowledges that some internally at Larian have pushed again, although Vincke says, “I believe at this level everybody at the corporate is kind of OK with the way in which we’re utilizing it.”
This information hasn’t gone over tremendous nicely with the neighborhood, although. On Bluesky, Larian is being lambasted by a variety of people throughout the sport improvement neighborhood, together with some former Larian staff. “think about my suggestions: i beloved working at @larianstudios.com till AI,” writes Selena Tobin, an surroundings artist and former Larian staff. “rethink and alter your course, like, yesterday. present your staff some respect. they’re world-class & don’t want AI help to give you superb concepts.”
The Divinity and Baldur’s Gate 3 communities have a considerably extra divided response, with some defending its use for concepting, although there’s nonetheless a vital quantity of backlash. Just a few commenters have identified that video games corresponding to The Alters suffered from vital fan anger over found generative AI use, however are keen to forgive Larian for a similar offense.
In response to this backlash, Vincke has issued IGN a prolonged follow-up response, which we have printed right here in full:
We’ve been constantly growing our pool of idea artists , writers and story-tellers, are actively placing collectively author rooms, casting and recording performances from actors and hiring translators.
Since idea artwork is being referred to as out explicitly – we have now 23 idea artists and have job openings for extra. These artists are creating idea artwork day in day trip for ideation and manufacturing use.
Every little thing we do is incremental and aimed at having folks spend extra time creating.
Any ML instrument used nicely is additive to a artistic staff or particular person’s workflow, not a alternative for his or her ability or craft.
We are researching and understanding the chopping fringe of ML as a toolset for creatives to use and see the way it could make their day-to-day lives simpler, which can allow us to make higher video games.
We are neither releasing a sport with any AI elements, nor are we trying at trimming down groups to change them with AI.
Whereas I perceive it is a topic that invokes a lot of emotion, it is one thing we’re continuously discussing internally by means of the lens of creating everybody’s working day higher, not worse.
Vincke then adopted up additional with a publish on Twitter/X:
Holy fuck guys we’re not “pushing arduous” for or changing idea artists with AI.
We have a staff of 72 artists of which 23 are idea artists and we’re hiring extra. The artwork they create is unique and I’m very pleased with what they do.
I used to be requested explicitly about idea artwork…
— Swen Vincke @the place? (@LarAtLarian) December 16, 2025
The publish reads:
Holy fuck guys we’re not “pushing arduous” for or changing idea artists with AI.
We have a staff of 72 artists of which 23 are idea artists and we’re hiring extra. The artwork they create is unique and I’m very pleased with what they do.
I used to be requested explicitly about idea artwork and our use of Gen AI. I answered that we use it to discover issues. I didn’t say we use it to develop idea artwork. The artists do this. And they’re certainly world class artists.
We use AI instruments to discover references, identical to we use google and artwork books. On the very early ideation phases we use it as a tough define for composition which we change with unique idea artwork. There isn’t a comparability.
I talked about how we use ML right here if you need to know extra:
https://gamespot.com/articles/baldurs-gate-3-dev-embraces-machine-learning-for-tasks-that-nobody-wants-to-do/1100-6531123/We’ve employed creatives for his or her expertise, not for his or her means to do what a machine suggests, however they’ll experiment with these instruments to make their lives simpler.
This dialogue comes amid a slate of interviews with Vincke following the announcement of Larian’s subsequent sport, Divinity, at The Game Awards final week. We had our personal interview with Vincke, which you’ll learn in full right here, and elsewhere Vincke has confirmed Divinity will in reality be a turn-based RPG. We’ve been slowly compiling every thing we find out about Divinity thus far proper right here.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Acquired a story tip? Ship it to rvalentine@ign.com.