Larian Studios held an AMA session on Reddit regarding last year’s scandal surrounding their use of AI technology for the upcoming Divinity game.
A few weeks ago, the team from Larian drew the ire of the internet after host Swen Vincke stated in an interview that the authors of the concept drawings for the upcoming Divinity are using generative AI to explore ideas.
Although this did not mean that anything created by artificial intelligence would end up in the game, the reaction of a part of the gaming audience was violent, and Larian promised to clear up the situation with a direct conversation on Reddit. That AMA session is now done, and Larian said that the reaction of the audience made them do it stop using genAI technology to research conceptual drawings.
Vincke says that they decided to do so so that there would be no doubt or ambiguity that Divinity would be a game without any AI-generated visuals. How will we know? No way – just as they wouldn’t have known about the previous use if Vincke hadn’t mentioned it in the interview.
However, Larian also says that the move does not mean that they completely prohibit the use of AI technology in other segments of Divinity development.
“We’re constantly trying to improve the speed at which we can try things. The more iterations we can do, the better the gameplay overall. We believe generative AI can help us do that, so we’re trying it out in different departments. We hope it can help us refine ideas faster, which will lead to a more focused development cycle, less waste of resources, and ultimately a better game.” Vincke said.