The Divinity Developer Clarifies Its Application of AI Tools for Upcoming Divinity

The developer behind popular titles like Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity: Original Sin recently teased its upcoming project, generating a wave of hype within the gaming community. However, follow-up comments from the company's co-founder have brought clarity to the conversation, addressing the developer's stance toward machine learning.

Augmenting Workflows, Not Cutting Jobs

In a latest message, Larian's director outlined that the developer is using machine learning for particular supporting purposes. These include developing pitch decks, creating initial visual ideas, and creating draft dialogue.

Notably, Vincke made clear that the final assets in the game will be crafted exclusively by actual writers. "Larian is creating every line manually," he stated.

Our studio is constantly increasing our team of concept artists and are busily forming narrative groups.

Given that concept art is being particularly called out — we presently have over twenty concept artists and have positions available for further artists.

All our efforts we do is additive and focused on letting our team spend more time on actual creation.

Any ML tool implemented properly is supplementary to a creative team routine, not a replacement for their talent.

Tempering Reactions with Clear Intent

The news of AI usage originally generated backlash among a segment of the community. In response, Vincke provided more clarification on social media.

"Our team utilizes these tools to explore references, similar to we use the internet and physical media," he explained. "In the very early brainstorming phase we use it as a basic framework for composition which we then substitute with original concept art."

He continued, "Larian brings on creatives for their inherent skill, not for their capacity to replicate what a AI generates."

Three Pillars of Practical Application

Vincke had in the past outlined the company's practical strategy to AI and ML, categorizing its use into primary functions:

• Handling Monotonous Jobs: This encompasses motion capture cleaning, voice editing, and pipeline-specific tasks like adapting animations for different models.
• Accelerated Iteration: Using tools to quickly build simple models of gameplay ideas to test concepts before full production.
• Future Potential for Gameplay: Exploring how machine learning could in the future enhance innovative player agency, specifically in simulating dynamic reactions in a complex RPG.

He clearly noted that core creative disciplines — such as visual art — are are in no way areas where the studio is reducing creative input. In fact, Larian is expanding its staff in these precise fields.

"Larian is neither launching a game with any AI components, nor considering cutting staff to swap them out with artificial intelligence," Vincke summarized.