The Divinity Developer Explains Its Use of Generative AI for Upcoming Divinity

The studio behind popular titles like Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity: Original Sin just teased its upcoming project, generating immense excitement within the industry. However, follow-up statements from the company's figurehead have introduced a new dimension to the conversation, focusing on the team's philosophy toward generative artificial intelligence.

Augmenting Workflows, Not Cutting Jobs

In a new statement, Larian's director outlined that the company is using generative AI for particular ancillary purposes. These encompass fleshing out presentation materials, producing early-stage visual ideas, and writing draft text.

Importantly, Vincke emphasized that the end assets in the game will be crafted entirely by actual artists. "Larian is writing every line ourselves," he affirmed.

We are actively expanding our team of concept artists and are actively forming dedicated writer rooms.

Given that this area is being explicitly mentioned — we currently have 23 concept artists and have roles to fill for additional talent.

Everything we do is additive and aimed at letting our team spend more time on actual creation.

Every AI system applied correctly is additive to a creative team process, never a stand-in for their craft.

Tempering Reactions with Clear Intent

The revelation of employing this technology initially provoked backlash among some the community. In reply, Vincke offered more clarification on online platforms.

"At Larian, we employ these tools to explore references, just like we use Google and reference books," he explained. "In the conceptual planning process we use it as a rough outline for structure which we then replace with hand-crafted illustrations."

He added, "Our studio recruits creatives for their creative vision, not for their capacity to replicate what a AI generates."

Focused Uses for Machine Learning

Vincke had previously broken down the team's focused method to AI and ML, grouping its use into three main areas:

• Streamlining Repetitive Work: Areas like polishing mocap data, dialogue cleanup, and pipeline-specific tasks like adjusting assets for various species.
• Fast-Tracked Experimentation: Using systems to quickly build simple mock-ups of gameplay ideas to validate concepts prior to expensive development.
• Future Potential for Gameplay: Exploring how AI could eventually facilitate new forms of reactivity, specifically in simulating player-driven narratives in a detailed game universe.

He explicitly affirmed that key artistic domains — such as writing — are are absolutely not departments where the studio is cutting creative input. Conversely, Larian is actively hiring in these very roles.

"Our studio is not shipping a game with machine-made assets, nor looking at trimming down teams to replace them with AI," Vincke concluded.