The Creators of Baldur's Gate 3 Explains Its Use of Generative AI for Next Divinity Game

The developer behind hit titles like Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity: Original Sin recently teased its new project, sparking a wave of excitement within the industry. However, follow-up comments from the company's co-founder have added nuance to the conversation, focusing on the studio's approach toward machine learning.

A Tool for Ideation, Not Replacement

In a recent clarification, Larian's director detailed that the team is employing AI technology for particular ancillary tasks. These include fleshing out PowerPoint slides, generating early-stage visual ideas, and writing placeholder copy.

Crucially, Vincke made clear that the final assets in the game will be crafted exclusively by actual artists. "Larian is writing all the content manually," he stated.

Larian is actively expanding our roster of concept artists and are busily forming narrative groups.

Since this area is being particularly referenced — we presently have over twenty concept artists and have roles to fill for further talent.

Each initiative we do is additive and aimed at letting our team spend greater focus on making content.

Any ML tool used well is a boost to a developer's workflow, not a replacement for their craft.

Tempering Reactions with Clear Intent

The admission of AI usage at first generated backlash among portions of the community. In reaction, Vincke provided further detail on online platforms.

"Our team utilizes these tools to gather inspiration, similar to we use search engines and reference books," he stated. "In the conceptual ideation stages we use it as a basic framework for composition which we then swap out with hand-crafted illustrations."

He added, "Larian brings on creatives for their creative vision, not for their willingness to execute what a machine suggests."

Key Areas of AI Integration

Vincke had earlier detailed the team's targeted strategy to this technology, grouping its use into key pillars:

• Handling Monotonous Jobs: This encompasses motion capture cleaning, voice editing, and pipeline-specific tasks like adapting animations for different models.
• Fast-Tracked Experimentation: Using technology to quickly build simple mock-ups of gameplay ideas to experiment with concepts ahead of complete implementation.
• Experimental Frontiers: Investigating how machine learning could eventually enhance emergent player agency, specifically in simulating player-driven narratives in a detailed game universe.

He specifically stated that central narrative domains — like writing — are are absolutely not areas where the team is cutting human talent. On the contrary, Larian is expanding its staff in these exact positions.

"Larian is not releasing a game with AI-generated content, and we are certainly not looking at cutting staff to replace them with artificial intelligence," Vincke concluded.