In a recent Bloomberg interview about Larian Studios’ upcoming RPG Divinity, CEO and game director Swen Vincke stated that the developers are using generative AI to “explore ideas, flesh out PowerPoint presentations, develop concept art and write placeholder text.” Following this statement, the developer and CEO has received backlash online with many questioning the ethics of using generative AI for concept art specifically. In response, Vincke made public statements online and to IGN, clarifying his statement by saying the machine learning AI tools are meant to be an “additive” to the team’s work not a replacement, and that the AI tools are “to explore references” for concept art. During The Game Awards, Larian Studios released a trailer announcing Divinity, a new game in the series set in the world of Rivellon. The studio claims that it is its “most ambitious title yet.”
Holy fuck guys we’re not "pushing hard" for or replacing concept artists with AI.
We have a team of 72 artists of which 23 are concept artists and we are hiring more. The art they create is original and I’m very proud of what they do.
I was asked explicitly about concept art…
— Swen Vincke @where? (@LarAtLarian) December 16, 2025
The full statement to IGN:
“We’ve been continuously increasing our pool of concept artists, writers and story-tellers, are actively putting together writer rooms, casting and recording performances from actors and hiring translators.. Since concept art is being called out explicitly – we have 23 concept artists and have job openings for more. These artists are creating concept art day in day out for ideation and production use.
Everything we do is incremental and aimed at having people spend more time creating. Any ML tool used well is additive to a creative team or individual’s workflow, not a replacement for their skill or craft. We are researching and understanding the cutting edge of ML as a toolset for creatives to use and see how it can make their day-to-day lives easier, which will let us make better games.
We are neither releasing a game with any AI components, nor are we looking at trimming down teams to replace them with AI. While I understand it’s a subject that invokes a lot of emotion, it’s something we are constantly discussing internally through the lens of making everyone’s working day better, not worse.”
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