The Creators of Baldur's Gate 3 Explains Its Implementation of AI Tools for Upcoming Project

The studio behind popular titles like Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity: Original Sin has recently unveiled its new project, sparking significant excitement within the gaming community. However, recent statements from the company's co-founder have added nuance to the narrative, focusing on the team's stance toward machine learning.

AI as a Creative Assistant, Not a Substitute

In a new statement, Swen Vincke detailed that the company is employing machine learning for certain supporting purposes. These include enhancing PowerPoint slides, producing rough artistic references, and creating temporary text.

Notably, Vincke made clear that the final content in the game will be crafted entirely by real artists. "We are creating every line manually," he affirmed.

We are constantly increasing our roster of storytellers and are actively assembling writing teams.

Given that visual development is being explicitly mentioned — we currently have 23 visual developers and have job openings for more artists.

All our efforts we do is incremental and designed to letting our team spend greater focus on the creative process.

Every machine learning application used well is a boost to a creative team workflow, never a stand-in for their craft.

Responding to Feedback and Defining the Path

The admission of AI usage originally generated concern among a segment of the community. In reply, Vincke offered additional detail on social media.

"At Larian, we employ AI tools to research ideas, similar to we use Google and art books," he stated. "During the initial brainstorming phase we use it as a rough outline for composition which we then replace with hand-crafted illustrations."

He continued, "Our studio recruits artists for their creative vision, not for their willingness to replicate what a machine suggests."

Three Pillars of Practical Application

Vincke had in the past outlined the studio's practical approach to this technology, categorizing its use into primary pillars:

• Handling Monotonous Jobs: Areas like refining animations, voice editing, and pipeline-specific tasks like adapting animations for different models.
• Accelerated Iteration: Using systems to speedily create basic versions of scenarios to validate concepts ahead of full production.
• Long-Term Aspirations: Researching how AI could eventually facilitate innovative player agency, particularly in managing player-driven narratives in a complex RPG.

He clearly affirmed that key artistic domains — including music composition — are are in no way fields where the studio is cutting human involvement. In fact, Larian is recruiting more in these exact roles.

"Larian is neither releasing a game with machine-made assets, and we are certainly not looking at reducing creatives to substitute them with AI," Vincke stated definitively.