Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity publishing lead says "I'm not entirely sure we are the ideal target for the level of scorn" as backlash hits Larian over AI stance: "We don't use AI for art"

The developers behind Baldur's Gate 3 and the upcoming Divinity game, Larian Studios, are facing backlash following CEO Swen Vincke's statements on the use of generative AI during development – but they're prepared to clear the air.

Publishing director Michael 'Cromwelp' Douse has taken to social media to respond to fans' questions (and criticism) regarding the controversial technology and its place in Larian's own development process. In his first reply, he writes, "Back in April, our stance on AI in workflows was established, so I'm not sure why this is coming up now as a controversy (the timing of it!). We continue to hire people across all departments, not trim."

He continues: "Our goal is to make life better for individual workflows, not worse. We want to make better games that don't feature AI content in them, where much of the industry will feature AI content. We want everyone to have fulfilling, creative roles & keep their jobs, in an industry of mass layoffs. In other words, I'm not entirely sure we are the ideal target for the level of scorn." Does everyone at the studio agree, though?

"It's a company of 500 people. That's a village. In a village, you're gonna have people who disagree," explains Douse. "However, if there were some mass dissent or mandated nefarious workflow, it would all fall apart. You don't make a 97-rated game without everyone broadly being on the same page." The publishing lead then describes just how Larian uses AI – and no, it's not for any of the actual art that makes its way into the studio's games.

"We don't use AI for art," he says in a follow-up post, "we have people who create art, and they use various tools at their disposal to do that. This is normal industry practice. They dream, they conceive, they paint. It's theirs." Douse doubles down on this in another response to somebody asking what this all means, stating that Larian employs AI much like one would Google, any other search engine, or online library.

"It means, for example, that an artist might have an idea, or someone else may want to express a base idea they don't know how to express, and so instead of scrolling Google for hours or typing it out, they'll generate their idea so an artist can better picture what they're trying to say. It is a way of talking to each other. And then the artist will go and do their job of making art. Instead of photo-bashing to express, for example."

The dev expands on this in other replies, too, assuring, "We have concept artists… they create original concept art. The idea that every concept artist starts from AI-generated art and that this is handed down to them is not true. It's a tool that can be used between teams to express ideas if they want to…" As for why some members of the team use it, it's "because they want to... and if someone doesn't, they won't. It isn't that deep."

Douse further details, "The goal of any tool is to enable someone to work better, and as a result create a better game in a way that feels both more rewarding & retains more jobs. Our goal is to make people's QOL better and create great games." He concludes, "When people are out for blood, they will get it." That doesn't take away from Larian's process, though, and their "job" is to focus on releasing great games.

"Ultimately, our job is not to tell people what they should or should not think but to do right by our teams and make the best games we can possibly make, and that's what we'll do." I'd argue, at the least, Larian does indeed make the best games it could, AI controversy aside.

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