Larian Studios, the team behind Baldur’s Gate 3 and the newly announced Divinity, has reversed course on using generative AI during concept art development after a wave of community backlash. While the studio is stepping away from GenAI in that specific area to remove any doubt about authorship, it’s still leaving the door open for carefully controlled AI experimentation elsewhere in the development pipeline.
The situation began after Divinity was revealed at The Game Awards 2025, following an intentionally cryptic tease. In comments made around the announcement, Larian CEO Swen Vincke said the studio had been “dabbling” with generative AI for things like concept exploration, internal presentations, and placeholder text. He also emphasized that AI-generated material would not be used in the final game, but the response online was swift and largely negative.
As criticism escalated, Vincke responded directly to fans, making it clear that Larian wasn’t trying to replace artists. He pointed out that the studio has a sizable art team, including dedicated concept artists, and said the work being created is original. The message was meant to reassure players that human artists remain central to Larian’s process, but the studio soon realized that even limited GenAI use in the early stages was creating confusion and distrust.
To address concerns head-on, Vincke joined a Reddit AMA and clarified Larian’s position in stronger terms. He stated that there will be no generative AI art in Divinity, and acknowledged that talk of “using AI tools” for concept work muddied the conversation rather than helping it. To eliminate any ambiguity about where the game’s visual identity comes from, Larian has now decided to avoid GenAI tools entirely during concept art development.
Even with that shift, Vincke also explained that Larian isn’t abandoning AI experimentation across the board. The studio believes faster iteration can lead to better gameplay, and it’s exploring whether GenAI can help teams test ideas more quickly, reduce wasted work, and tighten the overall development cycle. The key distinction, according to Vincke, is that Larian won’t generate creative in-game assets unless it can fully verify the training data’s origins and confirm consent. If a model were ever used to produce assets for the game, he said it would be trained only on data the studio owns.
Larian’s writing team echoed that cautious approach. Writing director Adam Smith said the studio is not using AI text generation for dialogue, journal entries, or other narrative writing in Divinity. He added that a small internal test produced weak results—rating it “3/10” at best—further reinforcing that core storytelling will remain human-driven.
For players following Divinity’s development, the takeaway is straightforward: Larian is drawing a firm line around the parts of game creation that define its creative voice, while still investigating whether limited, transparent AI use could improve workflow behind the scenes. It’s a response shaped by fan feedback, and it signals how seriously the studio is taking questions of originality, ethics, and trust as the next Divinity begins to take form.
