Larian Pushes Back on AI Fears as Artists Speak Out
There’s been a lot of noise lately around generative AI in game development, and one of the loudest flashpoints has involved Larian Studios, the team behind Baldur’s Gate 3. What started as a single quote in a Bloomberg interview quickly spiraled into a much bigger debate about creativity, technology, and where artists fit in an industry that keeps chasing the next tool.
The controversy began when Larian CEO Swen Vincke was described as “pushing hard” on generative AI. That phrasing alone was enough to set social media on fire. Many artists and players immediately feared that AI was being positioned as a replacement for human creativity, especially in areas like concept art. The backlash was fast, and Vincke moved just as quickly to clarify his position.
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According to Vincke, Larian is not replacing concept artists with AI. That point was stressed repeatedly. Instead, AI tools are said to be used very early in the ideation phase, mainly to explore rough compositions or references. These early experiments are then thrown away and replaced by original concept art created by Larian’s artists. In his words, the comparison between AI output and real concept art “doesn’t exist.” The studio, he emphasized, hires creatives for their talent, not for their ability to polish something a machine spits out.
Vincke also pushed back on the idea that AI is dramatically speeding things up. Scripts aren’t suddenly being written faster, and dialogue isn’t magically finished overnight. What’s actually happening, he explained, is that more ideas can be explored. More experiments can be tried. But all of it still needs to be altered, refined, and finalized by humans.
Still, that explanation didn’t land well for everyone. Critics argued that even using AI for “references” misunderstands how art is made. Artists don’t just assemble images into a final product; the process of thinking, sketching, failing, and iterating is the work. From that perspective, AI isn’t a neutral shortcut. It’s seen as something that reshapes the creative process itself, often in ways artists never asked for.
Some former and current voices from the creative community were especially blunt, saying the direction felt disrespectful to world-class artists who don’t need algorithmic help to generate ideas. Others pointed out the irony: Larian has long been praised for investing deeply in talent and tools, proving that patience and human skill can deliver extraordinary results. To them, even cautious AI use feels like a contradiction.
Vincke, however, framed the issue as survival in a tech-driven industry. New tools are tested because ignoring them could be worse in the long run. Whether that argument convinces artists and players remains to be seen, but one thing is clear. This isn’t just about Larian or one studio. It’s about how the games industry decides what progress really means, and who gets protected along the way.
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