Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke recently ignited an explosion of online drama after admitting that the Divinity maker had begun using AI in production, even if he was adamant that the final game wouldn't launch with any content actually made by AI. Now, the studio's publishing lead has responded to fans worried about Divinity accidentally releasing with AI-generated bits, as was the case with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and The Alters.
For context, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's producer Francois Meurisse revealed that the team did in fact "use some AI, but not much" while making the game of the year winner, per an El Pais interview that's been making the rounds on social media as of late. The fact that Clair Obscur shipped with what seemed to be AI-generated art, which was quickly scrubbed via a patch, also resurfaced, even though game director Guillaume Broche insisted that his team rejected the tech in creative contexts.
That all led to Divinity's publishing director, Michael Douse, being asked how the Baldur's Gate 3 developer would avoid the same fate if it were employing AI in the early phases of development:
"It's the same as when photo-bashing makes it in," Douse tweeted, referring to the tech that lets digital artists blend 3D assets with real photographs or textures, usually employed by concept artists and such. "I remember I think it was a Hitman game that once included an actual photo of a dead guy. Fucking unfortunate. Between a dead guy and the alternative idk man. We have good QA and leads."
What Douse might be remembering was the time when TellTale's Batman: The Enemy Within made a whoopsie and launched with an image of a real-world Russian ambassador who was shot and killed... in 2017. Photo-bashing is a fairly frequently employed technique in game dev, but it's not one that often leads to corpses showing up in final products, so I'm not too convinced that Larian's only options are "between a dead guy" and using tech that raises serious ethical and environmental questions.
Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity director says he's not "pushing hard" for AI, the studio is actively hiring artists, and "I don't actually think it accelerates things."
