Generative AI has been on the tip of everybody’s tongues in the video game world this past month. While the controversial topic has been an evergreen talking point recently, back in December we saw Larian Studios blast themselves in the foot with a shotgun following the reveal of Divinity at The Game Awards.
Speaking during an interview with Bloomberg, Larian founder Swen Vincke was frank about the studio’s use of developing generative AI tools while also stressing that these never take away from human creative work, but instead using it to do the jobs nobody wants to do. We also spoke with Vincke at length on the subject and how Larian has continued to grow after the success of Baldur’s Gate 3, although this conversation surrounding AI dominated every single media headline for days in the aftermath.
Larian fumbled its damage control as Swen Vincke released a statement designed to calm angry consumers and make clear that his words were taken slightly out of context. He did initially, however, start his defence with “holy f*ck guys,” which doesn’t exactly seem like he’s taking concerns from his otherwise extremely supportive fanbase seriously. I’m of two minds about the situation, because it does seem like press and consumers alike are wilfully misunderstanding the studio’s intentions surrounding AI in an industry where tools they were shockingly transparent about are already seeing widespread use elsewhere.
As for what’s next, Larian has said it will be taking part in a Reddit AMA in the New Year that will involve several members of the development team to hopefully clear things up and assist in getting Divinity back on track. Since right now, it’s in awfully hot water.
Divinity, Clair Obsur, And The Curious Case Of Generative AI
In the same week, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 also came under fire for its use of generative AI during production, even going so far as being stripped of two Indie Game of the Year awards as a consequence. This controversy stemmed from a popular Reddit post that revealed that newspaper textures decorating certain parts of the game world in Clair Obscur were used as placeholders during development, although some appeared to make their way into the final product prior to being patched out. The Indie Game Awards made it very clear how strict their guidelines are, and any nominated title that makes direct use of generative AI is liable for disqualification.
This controversy going viral has sent the gaming world into yet another fervour as they are now questioning whether Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 deserved to sweep The Game Awards if this technology was used so recklessly. But, once again, this fails to acknowledge the bigger picture. It sucks that this placeholder texture wasn’t patched out, but when you consider the size of the team and the overall achievement of the game in its entirety, how is this sort of vocal outrage helping anyone? AI is here to stay in the games we play, so it would be wise to begin understanding how exactly the technology is used so we can best critique it.
One of the core points brought up by Swen Vincke is how generative AI technology will be used to streamline certain workflows, such as speeding up the motion capture process and allowing developers to spend less time on more tedious tasks, so there is more room for creativity. I’m in full agreement with stuff like this, but the idea of relying on AI to generate the foundations of concept art and similar creative endeavours feels like a slippery slope towards oblivion.
I want the industry to reach a place where games don’t take so long to make and developers aren’t forced to crunch towards unrealistic expectations, and AI-driven technologies are likely to be used as solutions to these problems, whether we like it or not.
AI Is Here To Stay, And We Need To Adapt To It
In response to the recent Larian backlash, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 director said that “It’s time to face reality, AI is here to stay” and he’s right. Larian was surprisingly honest about the use of technology that I imagine the majority of triple-A studios are using right now, and have been implementing into their workflows ever since it burst onto the scene. If a shiny bit of kit comes along that can save money and get games over the line faster, corporations are going to make consistent use of it.
I just hope they’ll do so ethically or such things will end up trickling down and infecting everything. But the average gamer doesn’t have any power to try and change that. We can be vocal, we can create games ourselves, and we can vote with our wallets, but if we were to boycott every single triple-A game that used generative AI in any form, we’d likely run out of things to play very quickly.
Since generative AI models have usually been trained on work artists did not give consent for, some will always feel use of AI in this manner constitutes stolen work.
One thing I think the average gamer has trouble differentiating between is generative AI that has a genuinely damaging impact on creative fields and generative AI, which has been made to help unlock the full potential of human talent. Technology is so often about unlocking little facets of convenience in our day-to-day life, and the programmes used by people to make all the games we love to play are constantly being updated to include such things.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with implementing such things into your workflow to make working lives easier, but video game executives are going to push this as hard as possible, regardless of where the ethics land. It’s a tricky business, and I’m not sure Larian truly earned the witch hunt that befell them purely for being honest.
My prediction for this massive fallout is that developers both big and small are going to be very quiet about their collective usage of AI tools moving forward. It isn’t worth the bad PR, even when good intentions might be had, and incredibly loud people on social media aren’t willing to understand the wider nuances of game development that underpin the usage of this technology in the first place.
I hate generative AI that actively results in the loss of jobs, widespread layoffs, or ruins the joy of experiencing the art I love. But in a world in which video games are only getting harder and more expensive to make, screaming foul whenever the technology is mentioned is only going to hurt us in the end.
