Larian CEO Swen Vincke responds to generative AI backlash from fans

Today, following an interview with Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, in which he discussed Larian Studios’ use of generative AI, CEO Swen Vincke used social media to respond to fan backlash. Generative AI is a controversial topic in video games, to say the least. On one hand, there are executives like Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney who think the AI disclosure on Steam is useless, and people like Elon Musk who want to create an entire video game using AI. Then there are developers like AdHoc Studio who claim that AI could never do what their voice actors can. Clearly, the CEO’s comments have struck a nerve, and the once beloved studio is trying to do damage control.

Larian CEO responds to backlash from generative AI comments

The comments in question are regarding the Baldur’s Gate 3 developers' ongoing use of AI tools, especially in the recently announced new installment in the Divinity series, which was a major moment at last week’s Game Awards showcase. Following other sites citing the interview, Vincke wrote a long message on social media going into further detail, and starting with an expletive: “Holy f**k guys we’re not ‘pushing hard’ for or replacing concept artists with AI.” You can read the complete statement if you like, but he ends on a good summarization, saying, “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.”

Larian's Swen Vincke's post and responses.Source: Twitter / X

Generally, Vincke’s stance on AI, based on previous comments and those added to social media today, is that they don’t see AI as revolutionary just yet. Vincke doesn’t see it as something that’s making game development more efficient or faster, but is encouraging employees to explore it if they find it useful. In the same interview, Vincke claimed that no AI-generated content would arrive in the final game, adding that “everything is human actors; we’re writing everything ourselves…”

The response on social media was not warm. One of the top responses claims that “there are no ethical AI image gens and they plagiarize by default…” and links to an article about generative AI’s plagiarism problem. The top comment adds, “The entire history of creative industry happened just fine without using AI, there is no need to shoot your game in the foot by using it now.” This is certainly representative of a vocal section of the video game audience, as we have seen previously with other developers, such as when the team behind The Alters admitted to using AI for background text and translations.

With Divinity likely years away from release, we will have to see what comes of this discussion. Has Larian truly lost favor with its audience? Or is this more of a vocal minority? Baldur’s Gate 3 remains one of the most successful games in recent memory, with new impressive sales numbers popping up earlier today. So, not only will that large audience need to disagree with the CEO’s approach, but they will also have to hear about it. Many players don’t tend to engage with the hobby to this degree.

Baldur's Gate 3

August 3, 2023

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• AI / Artificial Intelligence
• Larian Studios
• Swen Vincke