Larian publishing lead says Divinity dev is not "the ideal target" for your AI outrage

In the few days after Divinity's reveal at The Game Awards, there was little else but excitement and buzz around Larian Studios. Baldur's Gate 3 is one of the best RPGs ever made, but Divinity is set to take things to a whole new level. However, in the last 24 hours or so, things have descended into criticism following comments from Larian CEO Swen Vincke about the studio's use of AI. Following the publication of his comments, Vincke insists "we're not 'pushing hard' for or replacing concept artists with AI," and while that's his final say on the matter, director of publishing Michael 'Cromwelp' Douse has been on firefighting duty, defending the way in which Larian lets employees use AI and and stating he's "not entirely sure we are the ideal target for the level of scorn."

There have been some pretty high-profile AI controversies this year, ranging from companies like Krafton going all-in on the technology and making it a core of their business, to the likes of Embark Studios using it for voice line generation in Arc Raiders. It's generated both healthy criticism and a lot of unhealthy outrage as a section of the gaming community looks to torch any studio using AI, generative or not, in any capacity. Now, Divinity and Larian are the latest to get caught up.

In a Bloomberg article featuring quotes from Vincke, journalist Jason Schreier summarizes that Larian has been "pushing hard on generative AI, although the CEO says the technology hasn't led to big gains in efficiency."

After the piece was published and the criticism started to be thrown at Vincke, he wrote on X: "Holy fuck guys we're not 'pushing hard' for or replacing concept artists with AI. We have a team of 72 artists of which 23 are concept artists and we are hiring more. The art they create is original and I'm very proud of what they do. I was asked explicitly about concept art and our use of Gen AI. I answered that we use it to explore things. I didn't say we use it to develop concept art. The artists do that. And they are indeed world class artists."

Douse, meanwhile, has been more actively responding to disgruntled gamers on X. "The AI part of developing concept [art] here is literally replacing reference searching," he says in one reply to a critical fan. "Instead of searching books/Google, you generate an example. I think the misunderstanding is that people think 'develop' means 'paint.'"

Countering claims that AI adoption will make Larian employees unhappy, Douse acknowledges that in a "village" of hundreds of developers, some will disagree. "However, if there was some mass dissent or mandated nefarious workflow it would all fall apart. You don't make a 97 rated game [Baldur's Gate 3] without everyone broadly being on the same page." Several of Douse's replies also make it clear that staff can use AI only if they want to and feel like it improves their quality of life, and it's not being pursued as something that will replace human developers.

In another post, Douse summarizes Larian's stance and aims to redirect those unhappy with generative AI use in videogames elsewhere. "We want to make better games that don't feature AI content in them, where much of the industry will feature AI content. We want everyone to have fulfilling, creative roles and keep their jobs, in an industry of mass layoffs. In other words, I'm not entirely sure we are the ideal target for the level of scorn."

Personally, I don't think stuffing AI-generated assets in the final version of a game will ever benefit it, and even using it as an inspirational tool in earlier stages of development could result in an inferior product if not used carefully - something Larian definitely needs to take care over, if this is now its approach. However, I'm also cognizant that AI has its uses for getting certain tasks done more quickly, and I can accept its usage in this context, so long as it doesn't replace talented humans. That level of nuance, however, rarely exists when it comes to the good old comments section, and that's something Larian's just found out the hard way.