The Astronauts CEO Adrian Chmielarz - developer behind beloved walking sim The Vanishing of Ethan Carter and early access fantasy FPS Witchfire - has chimed in on the discourse around Larian Studios' use of generative AI.
For context, just earlier this month, Larian CEO Swen Vincke found himself in hot water for saying the studio was toying with generative AI in the early stages of production for Divinity. He later went on to clarify that the RPG wouldn't launch with any AI-generated assets - developers were allowed to use the tech if they wanted to for early ideation, and the studio allegedly isn't trying to replace human devs.
Still, the backlash remained with many arguing over generative AI's ethical and environmental impacts; concerns that remain whether the game ships with AI art or not.
Speaking to TechRaptor, Chmielarz said the developer simply "got a little bit unlucky" with how the news came out. "I think that Larian is definitely not evil," he added. "I'm seeing from what they wrote that they're... doing deep soul searching of what exactly is that going to mean for Larian going forward, and so we'll see what happens."
For Witchfire, though, the studio lead is firmly against using the tech in development. Chmielarz explained that he's used AI programs to clean up his placeholder text since English isn't his first language, but Gen AI isn't being employed anywhere else in the fantasy shooter.
Elsewhere, he had quite a refreshing take on why people are so concerned about AI game development in the first place, explaining that he quite likes how much people care about where their art comes from: "They want to have contact with other humans through art."
