Larian Studios Clarifies Its Use of AI Tools for Upcoming Divinity Game

The studio behind popular titles like Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity: Original Sin recently shown its new project, creating significant excitement within the player base. However, follow-up remarks from the company's figurehead have added a new dimension to the narrative, focusing on the studio's approach toward machine learning.

Augmenting Workflows, Not Cutting Jobs

In a new statement, Swen Vincke outlined that the team is employing machine learning for certain ancillary functions. These include developing PowerPoint slides, generating early-stage visual ideas, and creating temporary text.

Notably, Vincke made clear that the final content in the game will be crafted solely by human writers. "We are writing every line ourselves," he said.

Our studio is constantly growing our roster of storytellers and are currently forming narrative groups.

Since this area is being explicitly called out — we currently have over twenty artistic staff and have positions available for further artists.

Everything we do is incremental and designed to having people spend more time on actual creation.

Every machine learning application implemented properly is supplementary to a artist's process, never a stand-in for their craft.

Addressing Concerns and Clarifying the Vision

The revelation of employing this technology originally provoked unease among portions of the community. In reaction, Vincke offered additional detail on social media.

"Our team utilizes AI tools to research ideas, in the same way we use Google and art books," he explained. "During the very early brainstorming phase we use it as a basic framework for composition which we then swap out with original artwork."

He added, "Our studio recruits artists for their unique talent, not for their ability to follow what a algorithm proposes."

Three Pillars of Practical Application

Vincke had previously broken down the studio's targeted approach to machine learning, grouping its use into key pillars:

• Streamlining Repetitive Work: This encompasses motion capture cleaning, dialogue cleanup, and pipeline-specific tasks like adapting animations for different models.
• Rapid Prototyping ('White Boxing'): Using technology to quickly build simple models of mechanics to experiment with concepts ahead of full implementation.
• Future Potential for Gameplay: Exploring how AI could eventually create emergent reactivity, specifically in simulating player-driven narratives in a vast role-playing world.

He explicitly affirmed that core creative areas — like visual art — are not fields where the studio is cutting creative input. Conversely, Larian is actively hiring in these very fields.

"Our studio is neither shipping a game with any AI components, and we are certainly not planning on reducing teams to substitute them with artificial intelligence," Vincke summarized.