The Creators of Baldur's Gate 3 Details Its Use of AI Tools for New Divinity Game

The team behind popular RPGs like Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity: Original Sin has recently teased its new project, creating significant excitement within the industry. However, recent remarks from the studio's co-founder have added a new dimension to the narrative, touching on the team's philosophy toward generative artificial intelligence.

Augmenting Workflows, Not Cutting Jobs

In a latest message, Swen Vincke explained that the company is employing generative AI for specific preliminary purposes. These include developing presentation materials, generating rough concept art, and creating placeholder dialogue.

Notably, Vincke made clear that the final content in the game will be crafted solely by actual artists. "Larian is creating all the content manually," he stated.

We are actively increasing our roster of writers and are busily assembling writing teams.

As this area is being explicitly mentioned — we presently have over twenty artistic staff and have roles to fill for further talent.

Everything we do is supplementary and focused on letting our team spend additional energy on the creative process.

Every AI system implemented properly is supplementary to a artist's process, not a replacement for their skill.

Tempering Reactions with Clear Intent

The news of using AI at first sparked concern among some the community. In response, Vincke provided further elaboration on online platforms.

"Our team utilizes these tools to research ideas, in the same way we use the internet and art books," he wrote. "In the initial planning process we use it as a rough outline for composition which we then swap out with original artwork."

He continued, "Our studio recruits talent for their inherent skill, not for their willingness to replicate what a algorithm proposes."

Three Pillars of Practical Application

Vincke had in the past detailed the team's focused approach to this technology, grouping its use into three main areas:

• Automation of Tedious Tasks: This includes polishing mocap data, dialogue cleanup, and Larian-specific work like adapting animations for different models.
• Accelerated Iteration: Using tools to speedily create rough mock-ups of scenarios to experiment with concepts ahead of full implementation.
• Experimental Frontiers: Investigating how AI could in the future create emergent player agency, especially in creating dynamic reactions in a vast role-playing world.

He specifically noted that central narrative areas — like writing — are are in no way areas where the team is reducing human talent. Conversely, Larian is expanding its staff in these very roles.

"Larian is not shipping a game with any AI components, and we are certainly not looking at trimming down creatives to swap them out with artificial intelligence," Vincke stated definitively.