The Creators of Baldur's Gate 3 Details Its Application of Generative AI for New Divinity Game

The team behind acclaimed RPGs like Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity: Original Sin recently shown its new project, sparking immense anticipation within the industry. However, follow-up remarks from the studio's lead designer have added clarity to the narrative, focusing on the team's philosophy toward machine learning.

Augmenting Workflows, Not Cutting Jobs

In a new statement, Larian's director detailed that the developer is employing generative AI for certain supporting purposes. These include developing pitch decks, generating early-stage artistic references, and creating placeholder text.

Crucially, Vincke emphasized that the final assets in the game will be authored entirely by real artists. "Our team is writing everything in-house," he said.

We are actively growing our roster of storytellers and are currently forming narrative groups.

As concept art is being specifically mentioned — we right now have twenty-three concept artists and have positions available for additional artists.

Everything we do is supplementary and focused on having people spend more time on making content.

Any machine learning application applied correctly is supplementary to a creative team workflow, never a stand-in for their talent.

Tempering Reactions with Clear Intent

The news of AI usage at first sparked backlash among portions of the player base. In reaction, Vincke provided further elaboration on public forums.

"At Larian, we employ machine learning to gather inspiration, just like we use search engines and art books," he explained. "During the initial brainstorming phase we use it as a basic framework for layout which we then replace with original illustrations."

He continued, "We've hired creatives for their unique talent, not for their willingness to follow what a AI generates."

Three Pillars of Practical Application

Vincke had previously outlined the studio's practical strategy to this technology, grouping its use into primary areas:

• Automation of Tedious Tasks: Areas like motion capture cleaning, dialogue cleanup, and technical processes like adjusting assets for various species.
• Accelerated Iteration: Using systems to quickly build simple models of scenarios to validate concepts prior to full implementation.
• Experimental Frontiers: Exploring how AI could eventually create new forms of gameplay, particularly in simulating unforeseen permutations in a vast role-playing world.

He clearly affirmed that central narrative areas — including visual art — are not departments where the studio is cutting creative involvement. In fact, Larian is recruiting more in these very roles.

"Larian is not shipping a game with any AI components, and we are certainly not looking at trimming down teams to replace them with artificial intelligence," Vincke summarized.