The Divinity Developer Clarifies Its Application of Generative AI for Next Divinity

The studio behind acclaimed titles like Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity: Original Sin has recently unveiled its upcoming project, creating a wave of hype within the player base. However, follow-up remarks from the studio's co-founder have added clarity to the discussion, touching on the team's philosophy toward AI tools.

A Tool for Ideation, Not Replacement

In a new clarification, the studio's founder outlined that the company is employing generative AI for certain ancillary purposes. These involve developing pitch decks, creating rough visual ideas, and writing draft copy.

Importantly, Vincke stressed that the shipping material in the game will be crafted exclusively by actual artists. "We are writing every line manually," he affirmed.

Larian is actively increasing our roster of storytellers and are busily forming dedicated writer rooms.

As concept art is being specifically called out — we currently have 23 concept artists and have job openings for further creatives.

Each initiative we do is incremental and focused on letting our team spend more time on the creative process.

Any ML tool implemented properly is additive to a creative team workflow, not a replacement for their talent.

Tempering Reactions with Clear Intent

The revelation of using AI initially generated unease among portions of the fanbase. In reply, Vincke provided further clarification on social media.

"Our team utilizes AI tools to research ideas, similar to we use the internet and reference books," he stated. "During the conceptual ideation stages we use it as a basic framework for layout which we then replace with original concept art."

He continued, "Larian brings on creatives for their inherent skill, not for their capacity to execute what a machine suggests."

Focused Uses for Machine Learning

Vincke had in the past outlined the team's focused method to this technology, defining its use into three main functions:

• Handling Monotonous Jobs: This encompasses refining animations, audio processing, and pipeline-specific tasks like adjusting assets for various species.
• Rapid Prototyping ('White Boxing'): Using technology to quickly build rough versions of scenarios to validate concepts before expensive development.
• Future Potential for Gameplay: Investigating how AI could in the future create new forms of reactivity, especially in simulating dynamic reactions in a detailed game universe.

He clearly affirmed that core creative domains — such as music composition — are are absolutely not departments where the studio is reducing human talent. On the contrary, Larian is actively hiring in these exact positions.

"Larian is neither launching a game with AI-generated content, and we are certainly not considering cutting creatives to swap them out with AI," Vincke summarized.