The Creators of Baldur's Gate 3 Details Its Use of Machine Learning for New Divinity Game

The studio behind acclaimed titles like Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity: Original Sin has recently shown its next major project, sparking immense hype within the industry. However, follow-up statements from the studio's figurehead have introduced nuance to the discussion, touching on the developer's philosophy toward generative artificial intelligence.

AI as a Creative Assistant, Not a Substitute

In a recent message, Swen Vincke explained that the team is utilizing machine learning for specific supporting functions. These include enhancing presentation materials, creating rough visual ideas, and writing draft copy.

Crucially, Vincke made clear that the end content in the game will be crafted entirely by real writers. "Larian is creating everything manually," he stated.

Larian is continuously expanding our team of writers and are currently forming writing teams.

Since this area is being explicitly called out — we presently have 23 artistic staff and have roles to fill for further talent.

All our efforts we do is incremental and aimed at enabling creatives to spend greater focus on making content.

Any ML tool applied correctly is a boost to a creative team process, not a replacement for their skill.

Addressing Concerns and Clarifying the Vision

The admission of using AI at first generated concern among some the fanbase. In reply, Vincke provided additional elaboration on social media.

"We use AI tools to gather inspiration, in the same way we use the internet and physical media," he stated. "In the initial ideation stages we use it as a rough outline for composition which we then substitute with hand-crafted concept art."

He added, "Our studio recruits talent for their unique talent, not for their capacity to execute what a algorithm proposes."

Key Areas of AI Integration

Vincke had earlier broken down the team's targeted strategy to this technology, defining its use into key pillars:

• Streamlining Repetitive Work: This includes motion capture cleaning, dialogue cleanup, and pipeline-specific tasks like adjusting assets for various species.
• Accelerated Iteration: Using tools to speedily create simple mock-ups of mechanics to experiment with concepts prior to complete production.
• Experimental Frontiers: Researching how AI could one day create new forms of gameplay, especially in simulating player-driven narratives in a vast role-playing world.

He specifically affirmed that key artistic domains — including music composition — are are absolutely not fields where the studio is cutting artistic input. On the contrary, Larian is actively hiring in these precise positions.

"Larian is not releasing a game with machine-made assets, and we are certainly not looking at reducing creatives to substitute them with AI," Vincke summarized.