Larian CEO clarifies generative AI use, vows final games will be ‘human made'

Swen Vincke, the CEO of acclaimed game developer Larian Studios, has issued a forceful public clarification following backlash over the company’s use of generative AI tools.

The controversy started following a Bloomberg interview which revealed an internal black at the Baldur’s Gate 3 studio regarding the adoption of the technology.

In the initial interview, Vincke confirmed that Larian uses generative AI to conduct exploratory tasks such as generating placeholder text, brainstorming ideas, and crafting presentations.

He stressed that the studio’s next major title, Divinity, would have no AI-generated content and that its use had not led to layoffs.

Vincke stated, “I think at this point everyone at the company is more or less OK with the way we’re using it.”

However, the Bloomberg report showcases major internal dissent. An anonymous Larian artist expressed concern as “I loved working at Larian until AI.” 

Another stated, “Reconsider and change your direction, like, yesterday. Show your employees some respect. They are world-class & do not need AI assistance to come up with amazing ideas.”

With these remarks, criticism from players and developers started pouring online.

Responding to the controversy, Larian CEO wrote a detailed post on X (formerly Twitter), “Holy f*** guys we’re not "pushing hard" for or replacing concept artists with AI. We have a team of 72 artists of which 23 are concept artists and we are hiring more. The art they create is original and I’m very proud of what they do.”

Explaining the interview, he stated, “I was asked explicitly about concept art and our use of Gen AI. I answered that we use it to explore things. I didn’t say we use it to develop concept art. The artists do that. And they are indeed world class artists.”

“We use AI tools to explore references, just like we use google and art books. At the very early ideation stages we use it as a rough outline for composition which we replace with original concept art. There is no comparison,” he added.

He also stressed on using AI tools to make creators’ lives easier than to replace them, “We've hired creatives for their talent, not for their ability to do what a machine suggests, but they can experiment with these tools to make their lives easier.”

In the interview, Vincke made two core promises.

One is that Larian will not release a game containing generative AI content, and another is that it will not use the technology to downsize its workforce.

He told Bloomberg regarding Divinity, “Everything is human actors, we’re writing everything ourselves.”