Generative AI is a hot button issue in game development, as studios big and small employ some version of the tech in their processes. Baldur's Gate 3 company Larian Studios isn't among them, as publishing director Michael Douse believes the whole lot of it to be utterly useless.
On X/Twitter, he posted a small rant about people thinking they're creative by throwing prompts at these algorithmic bots. "AI artists are insufferable," he starts. "They think they're punk post-modernists but every intellectual point they make on Twitter was made by a man with a toilet in the 1910s. Yet to see a new idea that wasn't just LinkedIn copypasta."
He goes on to add that anyone who "evangelised a spanner" with similar energy would be approached with extreme skepticism and get "put in a home." Nobody can accuse him of being coy about his views, that's for sure.
AI artists are insufferable. They think they're punk post-modernists but every intellectual point they make on Twitter was made by a man with a toilet in the 1910s. Yet to see a new idea that wasn't just LinkedIn copypasta.November 18, 2025
His particularly staunch viewpoint is relatively rare compared to more tempered perspectives. Shams Jorjani, the CEO of Arrowhead Studios, the company behind Helldivers 2, believes there's a "middle ground" in using aspects of the technology, while Brendan Greene, the creator of PUBG, is glad the industry has a broad distaste for the tolls, but claims to actively use it "the right way" for some parts of the pipeline in his current project.
Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding mastermind Hideo Kojima views AI as a "friend" to which he'd offload the "tedious tasks." There have been reports of EA making chatbots and other tech mandatory company-wide, not only for creative processes but in management as well. Meanwhile, Arc Raiders and Black Ops 7 have suffered backlash for allegedly utilizing AI in different capacities.
Though it can be appealing to have something automate smaller or more time-consuming jobs in making a game, it's always important to remember the assets often come from systems trained on artwork that was used without the consent of their creators. The value of a human's work lies at the core of any debate around the subject, and it seems as though Larian is one team that isn't going to be persuaded any which way.
