Reeling from AI usage backlash, Larian will let fans ask about their dev process ‘directly’ in upcoming AMA

Larian Studios has been caught in a storm lately following comments made by chief executive Swen Vincke regarding the use of AI at the company. Now, Vincke said Larian will host an AMA after the New Year, allowing players to gain insight into the studio’s creative processes.

Larian Studios uses AI, that much is unsurprising. This was confirmed on several occasions by chief executive Swen Vincke, who is rather beloved in the gaming industry, especially after Larian knocked it out of the park with Baldur’s Gate 3. However, for some reason, people caught onto his latest comments about the technology, told in an interview with Jason Schreier, where Vincke highlighted that some creative processes are performed with the assistance of machine learning tech.

And that’d be fine and dandy if Vincke didn’t mention it was being used for concept art, which saw countless people accuse the company of trying to replace artists with AI—a very hot topic indeed. Vincke went on to explain that no, Larian is not trying to do that, but is rather embracing new technologies and using them at various levels, eventually writing (and drawing) out anything artificial.

But that wasn’t enough, and people continue to lambast the studio, despite its track record, for using AI, arguing that even slight usage benefits massive corporations like OpenAI that are actively participating in replacing people in workplaces, driving up the prices of RAM, and generally reducing the quality of art, tech, and related industries.

So, Larian is now hosting an AMA to let people in on the creative process at the studio, likely to dispel any and all presuppositions players might have based on Vincke’s cataclysm-inducing interview. This was confirmed by Vincke himself, who said a lot was “lost in translation” over the past week, which the AMA could help clarify.

The exact date of the AMA is TBA, but probably sometime in January. Vincke himself seems to have also taken leave from social media, aiming to return in the first month of next year. And no wonder, given all the pressure.

I, for one, think AI should never be used by anyone striving to create valuable art. AI is an iterator, a machine made to regurgitate another’s work into something falsely new, doing so on a surface level and without ever exploring the nuances and depth of the individual works that go into its “training.” Sure, we as humans do the same: we read, consume art, enjoy the fruits of creativity and then rehash them into our own work, but we have to understand it, read into it, peer deeply. AI does nothing of the sort.

It takes a style, vaguely recreates it, and that’s that. Using that to create further iterations alienates your creativity, traps you in an endless cycle of derivation, and limits your mind with an easy fix that rusts the cogs of your cognition. Creative blocks are the greatest opportunity for any artist, and whenever they solve them off their own volition, they produce something incredible.

AI is just a shortcut, and a bad one at that.