Larian Studios is apparently bullish on generative AI. Despite backlash against the technology from fans and even some of his own developers, studio head Swen Vincke says the Baldur’s Gate 3 maker has embraced it for exploring ideas and for the early prototyping of new content.
Bloomberg reports that Larian has been “pushing hard on generative AI,” using it for things like PowerPoint presentations, placeholder text, and even concept art. The RPG powerhouse has reportedly moved ahead with the tools even against the wishes of some staff at the company, though Vincke believes most of the team is on board with how it’s currently being implemented.
“I think at this point everyone at the company is more or less OK with the way we’re using it,” he said.
The Larian director also promised that no generative AI would make it into any finished games, like the studio’s upcoming turned-based RPG Divinity. “Everything is human actors; we’re writing everything ourselves,” Vincke told Bloomberg.
This is in line with the veteran designer’s previous comments on AI, which argued that human creativity will still be the defining factor behind great games:
I don’t think you would have a competitive advantage if you do [use AI in the finished product], because it’s gonna be what’s available to everybody—if the baseline goes up because generation is available to everybody? Fine, that’s a new reality that we’re in. But you’re still gonna wanna create something special on top of that, and I think that’s where teams like us will make the difference.
I don’t think that people in my position that say ‘oh, we’ll replace everyone with AI’ are doing the right thing, they’re doing the wrong thing. But what I do think is we’re gonna jump forward in the kinds of games we make…we’re gonna be making our games differently, but to say that it’ll replace the craftsmanship? I think we’re very far from it.
At the time, Vincke was talking about using AI tools to help spot plot inconsistencies across branching dialogue and sprawling networks of interacting narrative elements. But flagging potential issues is very different from using AI to generate material like concept art and even placeholder text.
A bit of AI slop copy made it into The Alters this year and briefly caused a firestorm among players. Using any AI at all can immediately blur the lines between creativity and plagiarism.
Update 12/16/2025, 1:21 p.m. ET: Vincke has since responded to backlash over the studio’s use of AI with a longer statement to IGN about how Larian is and isn’t using the technology:
We’ve been continuously increasing our pool of concept artists , writers and story-tellers, are actively putting together writer rooms, casting and recording performances from actors and hiring translators.
Since concept art is being called out explicitly – we have 23 concept artists and have job openings for more. These artists are creating concept art day in day out for ideation and production use.
Everything we do is incremental and aimed at having people spend more time creating.
Any ML tool used well is additive to a creative team or individual’s workflow, not a replacement for their skill or craft.
We are researching and understanding the cutting edge of ML as a toolset for creatives to use and see how it can make their day-to-day lives easier, which will let us make better games.
We are neither releasing a game with any AI components, nor are we looking at trimming down teams to replace them with AI.
While I understand it’s a subject that invokes a lot of emotion, it’s something we are constantly discussing internally through the lens of making everyone’s working day better, not worse.
Update 12/16/2025 3:04 p.m. ET: Vincke responded on X as well, rejecting the idea that Larian is “pushing hard” on replacing concept art with AI:
Holy fuck 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. 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.
I talked about how we use ML here if you would like to know more [here].
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.
Holy fuck 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.
I was asked explicitly about concept art…
— Swen Vincke @where? (@LarAtLarian) December 16, 2025
