I really wouldn’t call it leaning into AI, they are using it for doing basic boring work and the CEO has even said he’s not even sure it actually helps that much with productivity. It’s really weird seeing the actual statements from Swen Vincke and then comparing it to articles saying he’s “heavily pushing AI” into employees, that just isn’t what’s happening.
I dislike AI as much as the next guy, but when even Clair Obscur launches with a few AI generated textures we have to just admit that AI is going to be used to some degree in a larger studio. So long as it doesn’t end up in the final product I don’t really care that much, it’s just kind of annoying.
Among the devs responding is a former Larian staffer, environment artist Selena Tobin. “consider my feedback: i loved working at @larianstudios.com until AI,” Tobin writes. “reconsider and change your direction, like, yesterday. show your employees some respect. they are world-class & do not need AI assistance to come up with amazing ideas.”
Honestly I’m prepared for LLM style sloppy writing.
You don’t generate “placeholder concept art”. You just replaced a concept artists job and put the first ingredient for an AI slop game in your pipeline.
Jason Schreier released the full transcript of the interview and Swen Vincke never said they had “placeholder concept art” actually, he said that the artists had used AI to generate images that they then used as reference while drawing concept art. In the full interview he doesn’t even seem particularly impressed with AI, says that it doesn’t improve productivity much and implies that it is disappointing. I honestly respect Larian for actually coming out and sharing their experiences with using AI, even if I agree they should probably stop using it entirely, rather than doing what most other studios do and simply hide it under a rug and refuse to talk about it.
Well clearly we do when even Clair Obscur gets caught with AI generated assets in a fully released project and gets away with absolutely no hit to their reputation simply because they refuse to comment on it. I would rather more devs come out and talk about their AI use like Swen Vincke has done here instead of keeping it under wraps for fear of the mob dragging their reputation through the mud for daring to even look at the thing. Maybe then more devs would get real information on how useless AI is as a proper creative tool.
I really don’t think we should be using AI, I just think that it’s entirely unfair to describe Swen Vincke as “pushing AI” and I respect that he was willing to talk openly about it. However judging by the rabid hatred from everyone online I doubt he will ever talk about it again. Most developers that are using AI are almost definitely just keeping it quiet to avoid controversy right now. The Clair Obscur devs avoided the controversy of literally launching a game with AI generated content by quickly patching the game and refusing to give a statement to any journalist who tried to contact them about it and I suspect this will be the way going forward.
I really wouldn’t call it leaning into AI, they are using it for doing basic boring work and the CEO has even said he’s not even sure it actually helps that much with productivity. It’s really weird seeing the actual statements from Swen Vincke and then comparing it to articles saying he’s “heavily pushing AI” into employees, that just isn’t what’s happening.
I dislike AI as much as the next guy, but when even Clair Obscur launches with a few AI generated textures we have to just admit that AI is going to be used to some degree in a larger studio. So long as it doesn’t end up in the final product I don’t really care that much, it’s just kind of annoying.
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/larian-boss-responds-to-criticism-of-generative-ai-use-its-something-we-are-constantly-discussing-internally
Honestly I’m prepared for LLM style sloppy writing. You don’t generate “placeholder concept art”. You just replaced a concept artists job and put the first ingredient for an AI slop game in your pipeline.
Jason Schreier released the full transcript of the interview and Swen Vincke never said they had “placeholder concept art” actually, he said that the artists had used AI to generate images that they then used as reference while drawing concept art. In the full interview he doesn’t even seem particularly impressed with AI, says that it doesn’t improve productivity much and implies that it is disappointing. I honestly respect Larian for actually coming out and sharing their experiences with using AI, even if I agree they should probably stop using it entirely, rather than doing what most other studios do and simply hide it under a rug and refuse to talk about it.
“we” don’t have to admit anything.
Well clearly we do when even Clair Obscur gets caught with AI generated assets in a fully released project and gets away with absolutely no hit to their reputation simply because they refuse to comment on it. I would rather more devs come out and talk about their AI use like Swen Vincke has done here instead of keeping it under wraps for fear of the mob dragging their reputation through the mud for daring to even look at the thing. Maybe then more devs would get real information on how useless AI is as a proper creative tool.
This is some Tim Sweeny “AI will be in everything” type BS
I really don’t think we should be using AI, I just think that it’s entirely unfair to describe Swen Vincke as “pushing AI” and I respect that he was willing to talk openly about it. However judging by the rabid hatred from everyone online I doubt he will ever talk about it again. Most developers that are using AI are almost definitely just keeping it quiet to avoid controversy right now. The Clair Obscur devs avoided the controversy of literally launching a game with AI generated content by quickly patching the game and refusing to give a statement to any journalist who tried to contact them about it and I suspect this will be the way going forward.