The Divinity Developer Explains Its Application of Generative AI for Upcoming Divinity

The team behind hit RPGs like Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity: Original Sin just shown its new project, creating a wave of anticipation within the gaming community. However, subsequent comments from the company's figurehead have brought nuance to the narrative, focusing on the team's approach toward AI tools.

A Tool for Ideation, Not Replacement

In a recent clarification, the studio's founder outlined that the company is using generative AI for particular preliminary functions. These encompass enhancing pitch decks, generating initial visual ideas, and writing placeholder dialogue.

Notably, Vincke made clear that the end assets in the game will be created exclusively by human creatives. "Our team is developing every line ourselves," he said.

We are continuously increasing our roster of storytellers and are actively putting together narrative groups.

Since concept art is being explicitly called out — we right now have twenty-three concept artists and have positions available for additional artists.

All our efforts we do is incremental and focused on letting our team spend greater focus on actual creation.

Any machine learning application applied correctly is a boost to a developer's process, not a substitute for their talent.

Tempering Reactions with Clear Intent

The revelation of using AI originally provoked backlash among a segment of the player base. In reaction, Vincke provided additional detail on social media.

"We use these tools to explore references, similar to we use the internet and reference books," he wrote. "In the conceptual planning process we use it as a rough outline for layout which we then swap out with original artwork."

He continued, "Our studio recruits creatives for their inherent skill, not for their willingness to follow what a machine suggests."

Focused Uses for Machine Learning

Vincke had previously broken down the studio's targeted approach to AI and ML, grouping its use into three main areas:

• Handling Monotonous Jobs: This encompasses motion capture cleaning, voice editing, and pipeline-specific tasks like adjusting assets for various species.
• Rapid Prototyping ('White Boxing'): Using systems to rapidly prototype simple versions of scenarios to experiment with concepts ahead of full development.
• Future Potential for Gameplay: Investigating how machine learning could eventually create new forms of player agency, specifically in simulating dynamic reactions in a vast role-playing world.

He explicitly noted that core creative disciplines — such as visual art — are are in no way departments where the studio is reducing human talent. In fact, Larian is actively hiring in these exact roles.

"Larian is not launching a game with any AI components, and we are certainly not looking at cutting teams to replace them with artificial intelligence," Vincke summarized.