The Divinity Developer Clarifies Its Use of AI Tools for New Divinity

The team behind popular titles like Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity: Original Sin just unveiled its next major project, sparking immense hype within the player base. However, recent comments from the company's co-founder have introduced clarity to the conversation, addressing the developer's stance toward machine learning.

AI as a Creative Assistant, Not a Substitute

In a recent clarification, the studio's founder outlined that the team is utilizing generative AI for particular preliminary tasks. These include developing presentation materials, generating early-stage artistic references, and creating placeholder copy.

Crucially, Vincke stressed that the shipping assets in the game will be crafted entirely by human creatives. "Larian is creating all the content manually," he affirmed.

Our studio is continuously growing our pool of writers and are currently putting together writing teams.

Given that visual development is being explicitly referenced — we currently have 23 concept artists and have positions available for more creatives.

All our efforts we do is additive and designed to enabling creatives to spend additional energy on the creative process.

Every ML tool used well is additive to a creative team process, not a replacement for their talent.

Tempering Reactions with Clear Intent

The revelation of using AI at first sparked unease among portions of the community. In response, Vincke provided additional detail on online platforms.

"We use AI tools to research ideas, similar to we use the internet and art books," he wrote. "In the initial planning process we use it as a basic framework for layout which we then substitute with authentic concept art."

He added, "We've hired artists for their inherent skill, not for their willingness to execute what a AI generates."

Key Areas of AI Integration

Vincke had earlier outlined the team's practical approach to AI and ML, grouping its use into primary functions:

• Automation of Tedious Tasks: Areas like refining animations, audio processing, and technical processes like retargeting animations.
• Rapid Prototyping ('White Boxing'): Using systems to speedily create simple mock-ups of scenarios to validate concepts ahead of full development.
• Experimental Frontiers: Researching how machine learning could in the future create innovative gameplay, particularly in managing player-driven narratives in a vast role-playing world.

He clearly noted that core creative domains — like music composition — are not areas where the team is reducing human involvement. In fact, Larian is recruiting more in these exact positions.

"Larian is neither shipping a game with machine-made assets, and we are certainly not considering cutting creatives to replace them with artificial intelligence," Vincke concluded.