The Creators of Baldur's Gate 3 Explains Its Application of Machine Learning for New Divinity

The team behind acclaimed role-playing games like Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity: Original Sin has recently unveiled its upcoming project, creating immense anticipation within the player base. However, subsequent remarks from the company's lead designer have introduced nuance to the narrative, addressing the developer's philosophy toward generative artificial intelligence.

Augmenting Workflows, Not Cutting Jobs

In a latest message, Swen Vincke explained that the team is utilizing AI technology for particular supporting functions. These involve enhancing presentation materials, generating initial visual ideas, and creating placeholder dialogue.

Crucially, Vincke made clear that the end assets in the game will be authored solely by human creatives. "We are creating everything in-house," he affirmed.

Our studio is constantly growing our roster of writers and are busily putting together narrative groups.

As this area is being explicitly referenced — we presently have 23 artistic staff and have positions available for additional creatives.

Each initiative we do is additive and focused on enabling creatives to spend more time on actual creation.

Every ML tool implemented properly is a boost to a developer's routine, not a replacement for their talent.

Tempering Reactions with Clear Intent

The admission of AI usage originally provoked unease among portions of the fanbase. In reaction, Vincke issued additional detail on social media.

"Our team utilizes these tools to gather inspiration, in the same way we use search engines and reference books," he wrote. "During the conceptual planning process we use it as a basic framework for composition which we then swap out with hand-crafted illustrations."

He noted, "Our studio recruits artists for their creative vision, not for their capacity to replicate what a algorithm proposes."

Three Pillars of Practical Application

Vincke had in the past detailed the company's targeted method to this technology, categorizing its use into three main functions:

• Streamlining Repetitive Work: Areas like polishing mocap data, dialogue cleanup, and technical processes like adjusting assets for various species.
• Rapid Prototyping ('White Boxing'): Using tools to quickly build rough mock-ups of scenarios to validate concepts prior to full production.
• Future Potential for Gameplay: Researching how machine learning could eventually enhance innovative gameplay, especially in creating player-driven narratives in a vast role-playing world.

He explicitly stated that central narrative domains — like writing — are are in no way departments where the studio is replacing creative input. Conversely, Larian is recruiting more in these very roles.

"We are not releasing a game with machine-made assets, nor planning on cutting teams to substitute them with AI," Vincke summarized.