GenAI ban in concept art
Addressing this issue directly, Vinke said that to ensure there is no doubt, the studio has decided to refrain from using the GenAI tool entirely during the concept art stage. This marks a departure from previous approaches that used such tools for rapid ideation and exploration. Vincke acknowledged that while the previous method was never intended to create final game assets, the mere association with GenAI had caused confusion regarding the origins of the studio's artwork. By completely removing these tools from the concept pipeline, Larian aims to ensure that every work of art is unmistakably the result of human craftsmanship.
However, the studio stopped short of an outright ban on machine learning technology, distinguishing between creative generation and development efficiency. As reported by Polygon, Vincke and Gabriel Bosquet, Larian's director of machine learning, explained that the studio will continue to experiment with machine learning to reduce “mechanical work” and speed up iterations behind the scenes.
According to Vincke, the key difference is ownership and consent. Larian will not generate any “creative assets” that appear in the final game unless we are 100% certain of the origin of the training data and have the explicit consent of the creator. Gabriel Bosque provided further insight into these “behind the scenes” applications, noting in particular the enormous logistical challenges of managing over 100,000 audio lines recorded by hundreds of actors.
