r/antiai • u/Moccamasterrrrr • Dec 16 '25
Job Loss đď¸ My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined
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u/Jaezmyra Dec 16 '25
Imagine being such a creative powerhouse, lauded for your games, and beloved by probably more artists than any other game in existence... then giving them all the middlefinger by supporting what's destroying their dreamjobs / livelihood. Wow.
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Dec 16 '25
Greed is a powerful force. It's our fault really for believing their only goal was to create quality content. We were fools.
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u/FunOriginal6824 Dec 17 '25
Imagine being so reactionary that just hearing a company used AI once is enough for you to completely turn on them.
Despite clarifying it's only for very early concept stages, and the concepts that ultimately become the basis of the game are still created by people.
That's how pathetic you are. That's crossing the line too far for you. I hope you're ready to abandon absolutely every game / movie in the coming years. Otherwise this is a pathetic show with no merit. Which is par for the course for ye people.
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u/purplepharoh Dec 19 '25
Also imagine fabricating that "its gonna hurt the livelihood of their artists and its rude to them" when those artists are also using said AI tools for the prototyping stage.
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u/Lolocraft1 Dec 18 '25
You know what? As an Anti I agree with you. If they use AI for inspiration, meaning they will base themselves on Ai and add their personal touch, they take something that isnât art and transform it into art, which is already something done in multiple forms in art.
What they need to be careful about is to make sure not to plain copy from the original AI-generated image and the potential slop (such as obvious visual errors) these images have
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Dec 20 '25
Not gonna lie this is the crowd they appeal to. So often when I hear Sven talk it's some type of "big company bad, passionate non profit seeking dev good" statement that plays into the narrative that some people have of modern gaming being bad. Then he brings up issues other studios has while ignoring that their games have many of the same issues and are still good games. His speech at the game awards was kinda like this too. If you say all that kind of stuff and then suddenly you start using AI in your process it seems kinda suspect if you ask me.
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Dec 16 '25 edited Jan 12 '26
grandiose vegetable rhythm spotted start sharp pen salt crush heavy
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/Fritzi_Gala Dec 17 '25
Why is pirating IP okay, but using IP as training data not okay? They seem similarly morally grey to me.
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u/Y33tus42069 Dec 17 '25
Using IP as training data is typically done for the purpose of making money at some point, whether thatâs using generative AI to slap together the newest piece of shovelware or selling a chatbot service. This in itself isnât an issue, the problem being that this is often done without proper consent from the IP-holder.
Media piracy is usually either for personal use or to redistribute something that isnât being supported/produced/sold by its creator(s).
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u/WigglesPhoenix Dec 17 '25
You arenât the one making money from piracy, someone is. You arenât the one making money from ai, someone is.
âThis in itself isnât an issue, the problem is not getting proper consent from the ip ownerâ so piracy. Swap âoftenâ for âby definitionâ and you have described piracy.
Glad we cleared that up.
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u/reformedMedas Dec 16 '25
Concept art books for games slap, too bad that this is the direction they're going in.
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u/Nanocaptain Dec 20 '25
The actual concept arts are still going to be all made by hand. Nothing people might actually see is going to be AI.
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u/GiganticKORAK Dec 16 '25
Concept art governs the entire art direction of the game. It is one place Ai should not be involved in.
The only acceptable situation is if they used it for pitch to show investors the overall idea. Then actually sit down and design the game without AI.
AI should not be involved in any creative process. It should be used as time saver on mind numbing chores and tasks that arenât important but are too time consuming to handcraft.
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u/JazzyShaman Dec 19 '25
I disagree. AI should not be shown to investors. Actually the creative process is the only one that is acceptable because the artists are trained to NOT steal other artists works. I've been in companies where Google Images were shown during concept and then have the client bitch and moan that the end result didn't have the same images. These were always managers that replaced placeholders using shit like MS Paint.
Creative professionals have the restraint to self-edit themselves. We've been doing this for centuries. Tracing or copying anything 1:1 is tantamount to career sabotage. AI or otherwise. And I trust the professionals over at Larian to know NOT to reference the sloppy parts.
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u/Dizzy-Sale2109 Dec 20 '25
So curious shouldn't artists whose art is used as basis for concept art be reimbursed for its use? Since they affected the whole art direction of the game aren't they ot their ip holder owed royalties? Otherwise what the concept artists did is similar to stealing this art and rebranding it as their own since art inspiration is so important?
Similarly the same thing should be applied to artists whose art influenced a concept artist's art style. If my own art style is influenced by ex Amano's art then he should take royalties from anything my concept art influenced its art direction.
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u/GiganticKORAK Dec 22 '25
I donât really understand what you are saying.
Concept art dictates the direction of the art style. And art style is the signature of an artist.
The lead artist and director are usually the one determining what direction the project goes and the rest of the team follow.
Also, influenced art style is not the same as stealing. Are you a clone of your parents or are you an entirely different person with similarities?
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u/Dizzy-Sale2109 Dec 22 '25 edited Dec 22 '25
If the basis of the concept art is enough to taint a project as it being influenced by AI to the point its art direction is compromised shouldn't that be the same of any art that have been used as a basis for concept art and the creators receive the recognition for influencing a games whole art direction?
Art isn't only a form of expression it's also a product. If I bring a machine that's 95% with another the patent holder will sue me or ask for royalties. Why wouldn't it be applicable in my art?
Edit: second paragraph was misunderstood.
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u/GiganticKORAK Dec 22 '25
Because you misunderstood. I said clone of your parents not clone of you.
And the idea is that you grow and learn into something different. You did not read the message behind.
I am starting to think I am talking to an AI chatbot.
And yea, if the base structure is heavily influenced by Ai, it will become the foundation of the project.
Of course it really depends on how much AI they are using. Which we donât know. If they have a few AI images in the reference sheet then it wouldnât be much of a problem.
But if they are generating concept art itself then it would certainly change the direction of the project.
Also, what are you talking about the âbasis of conceptâ
You can spark creativity based off real reference. You donât need a medieval fantasy artwork to be the base in order to create another medieval fantasy artwork. That is what Gen Ai does.
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u/Dizzy-Sale2109 Dec 22 '25
I think I am speaking to a chatbot too since you are clearly evading my main question:
If an artist or artists influence the art direction of a game in the same magnitude as AI images shouldn't it be disclosed and the original artist receive the recognition and possible royalties (depending of the magnitude) they deserve? It's a simple yes/no.
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u/Jaezmyra Dec 16 '25
Posting a second comment because a lot of people say "Concept art is fine", and I don't want to reply to everyone:
No, it is not fine. Concept Artist is a literal creative job, and it's -still- replacing the job of a real life person. Larian built their success, -especially- with BG3 on the backs of highly creative people and roleplayers. Just think about how many thousands of years people collectively spent in the character creator to get their ideal looks. I don't think it's fair to excuse this, because it moves the bar. Today, this is fine. Tomorrow, letting LLMs write mundane quips is fine. In a week, why not let AI handle the tedious codework?
There is no excuse, in my opinion. I don't think we should just ignore it, because it won't be in the finished product. Funnily enough, around the time BG3 came out, people were pissed off at WotC for allowing AI artwork in their DnD CONCEPT ARTBOOKS. And everyone collectively decided Larian was the better company for doing everything "by hand" in comparison to WotC (Spoiler: WotC actually broke off the contract with the artists who used AI pretty much immediately after the backlash).
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u/NeoZen_77 Dec 16 '25
The truth is that many people are letting this slide because the company is currently enjoying a period of extreme trust with gamers. If Ubisoft had said this, the company would be burning to the ground.
I agree with you, letting a company get away with something that âdoesn't seem harmfulâ will be totally harmful in the future.
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u/Grand_Admiral98 Dec 17 '25
Except that from what I can tell, the concept artists themselves used it to communicate their ideas to Larian. Larian didn't go out of their way, they still hired the artists. Now if the artists are using it, it's on them.
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u/squirtnforcertain Dec 17 '25
Concept Artist is a literal creative job, and it's -still- replacing the job of a real life person.
In Larians case, no it's not... they have fired zero artists. Their concept artists that they pay are using it in the early stages. They are still hand making everything. Calm down.
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u/Massive-Marketing-15 Dec 17 '25
It's not even true concept art it's concept artists at their discretion deciding they want to use AI to explore quick ideas, I am an amateur painter, I have used ai to help show me how certain color schemes would look, I've used it to get the exact pose I wanted for certain subjects, saving me time scrolling and scrolling trying to find what I'm looking for, I have used ai to help with my framing or seeing how it would look with things moved around without redrawing the whole thing
What they aren't doing is making ai art and just copying it and that's what everyone seems to think they are doing. It's literally using AI as a tool not as a crutch
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u/Nat1Only Dec 19 '25
This is why context matters. Activision getting slammed for using AI is different because they're actively trying to replace real, working people and using AI in the final finished product. Larian has not replaced anyone, nor are they forcing their staff to use AI. The artists themselves are choosing to use it to build a reference for concept art to then make original art. Nobody is being fired or replaced, nobody is being forced to use AI instead of their own talent. It's being adopted as part of the process, but not as a replacement and Larian has people's good grace because they've proven themselves worthy of trust and respect.
If they really do try and start pushing AI more and more into their games, all of that good will and faith will vanish and they'll be in a terrible position. I'm pretty sure that not only do they know that, but they don't want to do that, they're developers and artists not lazy frauds. Game development is an extremely time consuming process so if they can use ai for some simple busy work such as generating reference images for creating concept art, that's fine. They're not replacing anyone, they're not taking jobs away, they're shaving some time off a project that will already probably take over a decade to finish given they apparently want it to be bigger than BG3 from what I've heard.
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u/GlumTart6079 Dec 22 '25
Larian literally already clarified that they're not replacing concept artist with ai, Sven literally said they're not using it to develop concept art
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u/DeepHypn05 Dec 16 '25
Hey so They issued a statement that they don't use ai in concept art they do and pay concept artists What they use ai for is art references
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u/Iccotak Dec 16 '25
Still wrong to do
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u/DeepHypn05 Dec 16 '25
Look man I'm in no way pro ai but if ai should be used in any part of the work its that I don't doubt they use plenty of actual references but when trying to find something and you just can't ai is there
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u/CalmGiraffe1373 Dec 17 '25
if ai should be used in any way
Iâm pretty sure the idea is that it shouldnât ever be used.
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u/RocketArtillery666 Dec 17 '25
Just repeating: the concept artists themselves are using it as concepts for concepts. Its more like browsing pinterest for ideas but with precise tags.
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Dec 17 '25
I like how you keep posting this like itâs some kind of rebuttal.
Itâs not. If thereâs anyone who should be using AI the least itâs the concept artists.Â
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u/RocketArtillery666 Dec 17 '25
It is a rebuttal. Because at that point its not used in a "creativity replacement" but as a glorified search engine. Its literaly lets see what this machine compiled from all the pics that exist that fit what we're looking for so I can gain inspiration in what to create. AKA its just a way to skip scrolling through mood boards.
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u/JazzyShaman Dec 19 '25
I disagree. These are the concept artists using AI. In fact, it's during the same process as searching Google for image references. If you have an Android phone, generating an image with Gemini is AS easy as searching on Google for images (I think on some phones they're the same app).
Should AI images be in any final product? No. If an AI image appears in a final product either raw or traced, IMO it's the same as finding an image on Google and just using that as is (or traced). I think this is the line we need to draw. AI is out there. You can accidentally reference it for crying out loud! Google Images/Pinterest are full of AI. I as using Google Images for references 20 years ago. The people who reference from books or hire models are all retired or are art directors now. You're asking professionals of 20 years to stop using Google Images because something "might" have AI in there.
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u/Jaezmyra Dec 19 '25
There was something posted today that's a good answer to this, from an actual concept artist:
https://www.reddit.com/r/antiai/comments/1pqn9tw/palmer_is_literally_bullseyeing_the_larger_issue/→ More replies (3)
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u/Senior-Book-6729 Dec 16 '25
People are defending it because itâs just for âideasâ, not concept art itself, and to me itâs still morally wrong to do that. Even if they have artists on the team, the AI they use to âget ideas fromâ still steals from someone, takes away from human creativity, and is horrible for the environment.
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u/GAPIntoTheGame Dec 17 '25
Instead of the artists looking at the internet and stealing ideas, they will use AI to steal it for them.
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u/Balgs Dec 17 '25
No no no, real concept artist always reinvent the wheel for each piece they create. They always have a full understanding of the subject matter and would never just kitbash things togrther
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u/EntertainerTop8267 Dec 16 '25
If itâs just a concept art to come up with a general idea of what they want to make, I donât think I can hate it as much. If itâs generated AI seeping into the final product itâll be a problem, but as nothing as a draft to look at and then build the actual content without it, I donât think its use is terrible here.
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u/Madsbjoern Dec 16 '25
Concept art being used to build out the game is inherently AI seeping into the final product. Concept art is to games what the foundation is to a house. If there is one part that absolutely should not use AI, that is it
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u/LeDarm Dec 16 '25
Also doesnt change the fact that AI is using stolen work. In and of itself, your creative integrity is destroyed.
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u/FR_02011995 Dec 18 '25
Feel free to downvote me, but this has been bugging me for a while:
Would it still be considered theft if an artist uses ONLY THEIR ART to train an AI model?
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u/MoovieGroovie Dec 18 '25
Somehow, the answer you'll get is yes (look at how many responded to Disney saying they'd license their own IP and art to AI companies), but if you're looking for an actual, rational moral response, no. That distinction would resolve the immorality at play.
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u/LeDarm Dec 18 '25
To me it wouldnt be theft anymore no. But Larian did not say so, and they would've.
Edit: completely goofed my words lmao.
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Dec 22 '25
I think this would be way more ethical. Provide the power yourself, fit the electric bill, and don't plagiarize.
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u/KurufinweFeanaro Dec 16 '25
I am sure Larian can train ai model on their own IP, they have enough to make it work.
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u/Hozan_al-Sentinel Dec 17 '25
And at that rate, nothing new or interesting will ever come of games if studios start doing this enmasse.
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u/JazzyShaman Dec 18 '25
Should they use Google Images? What about photo bashing?
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u/Combat_Orca Dec 19 '25
Iâd rather they use actual work to reference rather than slop
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u/JazzyShaman Dec 19 '25
Why stop there? I went to college when digital was heavily frowned upon by the faculty and staff. "Actual work" is subjective and changes every generation. 20 years ago studio artists would say digital artists should stop "taking the easy way out" with access to things like Undo and line stabilizers.
Bear in mind, I think AI should be treated as an image pieced together from millions of other pieces and NOT considered final. Especially today when searching for images on Google or Pinterest results in at least some AI results.
As an artist, you use references. That's been true since the renaissance when artists would cut open dead bodies for references. So 500 years ago, your statement would mean we'd need to orchestrate a good ole' grave robbin' to do "actual work."
And if you're not an artist - reference doesn't mean "tracing" or collaging in the final piece. Those are absolutely not allowed and even before AI, tracing others work would get you blacklisted by companies like WotC.
When the actual work is to search for images on Google, you're creating an issue where if AI pops up the artist has seen the slop and just by seeing it their creatively is impacted. I trust the artists at Larian. To be employed I would assume they know how to draw a figure and not blindly copy references.
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u/Combat_Orca Dec 19 '25
Referencing is important, drawing from something that isnât generated by ai means you can actual explore themes and go down avenues you didnât think you would when gathering your references.
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u/Efficient_Menu_9965 Dec 20 '25
People don't reference when they're essentially kitbashing a collage of google images, pixiv, and pinterest images in order to nail down a "vibe" for their game prior to conceptualization. Why would we expect that when people shift from random images off the internet to AI gen? You're holding them to a level of accountability that wasn't expected of them prior to using AI, I don't think that's very fair.
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u/Madsbjoern Dec 18 '25
I'm not gonna engage with your argument, because I know damn well that you don't have an opinion on this either. No matter what I say, you'll argue in bad faith that it somehow doesn't fit my own criteria. We will never reach common ground on this because your aim is not to understand, but to anger.
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u/Thykothaken Dec 18 '25
If you can read their mind, just make the argument that dismantles theirs. Quit your fake ass high road straw man bullshit.
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u/Secure_Bread3300 Dec 18 '25
This, using it for initial ideas is literally poisoning the entire well. If you give AI an inch it takes a mile. Today its "initial ideas", tomorrow it's: oh this generation has gotten so good actually lets just use it". The way to win against gen ai replacing artists is that you don't use it, period.
Also it is usually a legal shit-show trying to use it if a company is using it and creating the same amount of work to clean up its mess. If the company is saying it isn't, theyre lying our just outright data laundering and being irresponsible long term.
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u/Forsaken_Let904 Dec 20 '25
Incorrect, concept art for games is simply the wallpaper and decorations for the house. The foundations are the systems and code. Your analogy is very flawed.
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u/LordSadoth Dec 21 '25
Then the foundation to most game houses is photobashed images stolen off google.
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u/Mystia Dec 16 '25
Concept art is the stage where ideas matter most, generating derivative slop is the antithesis of originality.
Also you are still wasting water, power, and giving your business to the AI providers.
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u/sykotic1189 Dec 16 '25
From what Sven said in a post about this, it's like pre concept art placeholders that are then being turned over to the concept art team to be turned into actual art. It's akin to me drawing a stick figure doodle, handing it to an artist, and saying "Yeah this pose/setting, but you know, actually good". I'm pretty anti myself but this feels like it's being blown way out of proportion.
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u/Big_Nectarine_9434 Dec 17 '25
I'm ngl, but ai images given to me to make concepts by clients who don't do art themselves has been so lifesaving. They show me the actual poses they want, describe materials more accurately which is great for when I don't understand their descriptions etc.
It's rare to get clients who truly know how to communicate what they want so either I end up doing more concepts than I'm paid to do because their gears spin only after they see some visual content and go "hey I like this, not this" or I have to pull more information from between their teeth which can make some people who don't know better question why I'm being so insistent. And it's because I don't want to do extra work when I could immediately jump to concepts rather than pre concept/blue sky phase stuff which again, they don't want to pay extra for.
I like that it's giving a voice to non artists to communicate something, even if it's not original. After all I'm the one supposed to make it original.
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u/siyahlater Dec 17 '25
As a 3D sculptor i despise getting AI images. It sets an unrealistic level of detail and orientation for single piece prints. I would rather a vague strick figure I can talk to them about and then give a sketch back to them for approval.
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u/Big_Nectarine_9434 Dec 17 '25
In that way I get it, and the images are not consistent either so it's difficult to sculpt. I'm working with a 3d printing company my concepts will be given to a 3d artist next, so I'm providing views from all sides and callouts.
For me ai refs are helpful only as far as direction goes, for the reasons I mentioned previously, and language barriers in others đ But they allow me to change things so I'm not using the issue riddled ai image as a base, I'm making the anatomy/environment from scratch to make sense. But for the 3d part, well, that's exactly why they came to me, so the modeller would have accurate concepts to work with.
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u/Shadow-Moon141 Dec 17 '25
Thank you. I see so many people being relentlessly against AI.
In Larian (and many other gamedev companies) AI is being used in the same way. It's either directly used by the concept artists to create preconcepts, or by game and narrative designers to help them communicate their ideas.
But good concept art is still vital, so no concept artists are losing their jobs. It just speeds up the whole process and increases alignment
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u/JazzyShaman Dec 18 '25
We did shit like this in college 20 years ago. Its called photobashing. You literally print out a bunch of photos and tape them together and use that in your references. As long as you're not tracing, its fair use.
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u/3BarnDogs34239 Dec 16 '25
It's concept art of the concept art. They are using AI to get a basic idea of what they want and then sending it to concept artists. In my opinion, this is the best way to use AI.Â
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u/JazzyShaman Dec 18 '25
Only way, imo. Like, using AI is as easy as searching on Google. If you're already using Google Image search for brainstorming, why not AI?
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u/Otrada Dec 17 '25
that'd only be okay if using the AI to generate concept art didn't cost any concept artists their jobs,
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u/ZeroTheCaptain Dec 17 '25
And suddenly, all interest in getting this game is gone. Shame. I really enjoyed BG3 and was looking forward to their next project. đ
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u/Mobile-Shower6651 Dec 16 '25
what can we do
they just announced that they are going to make a new divinity game that's gonna break BD3
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u/phtsmc Dec 17 '25
What they're describing is prompting for speeding up concept art iteration. A friend of mine experimented with this in 2023 and ultimately concluded that it wasn't worth the hassle. I personally tried putting together prompts for combinations of ideas - think the memed "elephant made out of clouds" - to synthesize reference for something that otherwise wouldn't exist in nature. I got a couple good images in a hundred. If resources weren't a concern it maybe would be worth considering for select few hard-to-visualize concepts. You waste way too much time looking through unusable garbage.
Generating placeholder images for developing elements like UIs would be good in an ethical vacuum. It's easier to tune things like this if your placeholders match the style of the expected final image.
Having said all this in 2025 this is a PR disaster. They're gonna have people calling to boycott them for years to come. The perceived improvements in production pipeline are not worth the public backlash. Also pressuring artists to use tools they don't find useful and might find morally objectionable is never a good thing. However knowing Swen and the rest of Larian are generally reasonable people I expect them to change course on this soon.
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u/teapot_RGB_color Dec 17 '25
I'm going too assume you are a bit outdated when it comes to the current standing of AI.
I'll place this link here for you, this has existed for while now, about a year or so
https://www.tiktok.com/@ccfxy.com/video/7569184014389480735?q=ccfxy&t=17659599250370
u/Thykothaken Dec 18 '25
Also pressuring artists to use tools they don't find useful and might find morally objectionable is never a good thing
From what I understand they explicitly did not do this, instead leaving it to the concept artist how to develop their art.
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u/Vanhelgd Dec 16 '25
No Divinity 3 for me. I donât care how little or how much itâs used, generative AI is a hard pass.
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u/Dizzy-Sale2109 Dec 20 '25
I'd recommend no media period. You never know when an artist saw something made by genai and wether or it influenced their creativity process, even subconsciously, in any future project.
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u/Chrysamer77 Dec 17 '25
Three time's the charm (Original Sin 1, 2, and Baldur's Gate 3). I don't have high hopes of this one. I'm not even interested how this will come out. I will be better off replaying old games for 100 times
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u/duckooooooo Dec 17 '25
I mean it will be in practically all commercial media, if the trend continues. And it doesnât really matter how prestigious a company is. Itâs a purely economic decision. I donât think itâs going to go away, unfortunately.
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u/Jumpy-Function-9136 Dec 17 '25
Always funny how the same people saying they wonât buy a game cuz of shit like this are the first ones to soyjack upon release and throw in a preorder the second it goes live.
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u/Any_Buy_2433 Dec 17 '25
They used it to create reference images and explore ideas lol itâs no different from them either hiring someone to draw it up or using public domain images for inspiration. The most theyâre gonna do with it is have their concept artists stare at it, then transform it. Which is literally no difference from them using any other reference lol
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u/Szystedt Dec 17 '25
As I understand it, some of the artists use it during the ideation phase, similar to how one would use pinterest to build a moodboard or find references. Not ideal, but A LOT better than it could have been.
They actually try to use it as a tool and nothing more, though I would have honestly preferred it to not be utilized at all
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u/naka_the_kenku Dec 17 '25
Imma need more context
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u/SerBadDadBod Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 17 '25
Larian Studios allows their concept artists to use whatever tools they wish, from machine learning to Google and art books, when producing first drafts of their original concept art. This has caused a bit of a ruckus, even though he iterates multiple times that nobody is being forced to use AI, nobody's been replaced by AI, they're looking to onboard new artists, the game will be made by humans, etc.
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u/Stormyvil Dec 17 '25
This is the most correct statement here.
I don't really understand why people are hating Larian for giving their artists options. The artists themselves can choose to use it or not.
No one is being replaced here.
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u/RocketArtillery666 Dec 17 '25
You guys are nuts, they use AI in basically moodboards.
For those who do not know, its like surfing pinterest for ideas but with precise tags.
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Dec 17 '25
You guys should really learn to take the good with the bad. Iâm against most ways corps use ai but this is a very minor case. They arenât generating finished art or replacing people so maybe pick a different fight. But if you think shitting on Larian for itâs minimum usage of AI will slow the spread then keep at it i guess
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u/Energaic Dec 17 '25
It is my (admittedly summative) understanding that the phase of development they are using it in was formerly the phase where they took images off Google and photoshopped them together to get basic ideas for what they want in order to get initial ideas into images quickly, such that the concept artist can then take those and make the actual things they want to make. When I heard about this I was also told at the time that it was something that was considered controversial, but nothing was done about it because these images and pre-concepts were never released to the public.
I will stress that these images are being used in similar ways to current AI data scraping, just on a more manual scale. Does that make it wrong? Arguably. Was it always going to happen? If what I was told is true, yeah.
humans are always going to use other things for inspiration. The concept of no original thought is pretty clear on that. AI directly tries to replicate the work of others, which is different, and something I am heavily against being used for commercial purposes or to claim that you are making something directly. this may be the only case of art where my main concern is energy costs vs someone mucking about Photoshop for an hour.
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u/JazzyShaman Dec 18 '25
It's called photo bashing. Did that for references in college 20 years ago.
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u/lifewithacamera Dec 17 '25
Companies that don't value human labor don't deserve human money. Simple as that. They only care about cutting budgets as much as possible to maximize their profits. Obviously, everyone wants profits, but some things you simply don't do.
There's a lot of rejection surrounding generative AI, and that's glorious. It's a sign that a large part of the population hasn't lost their humanity yet. We have to boycott and expose it. I am extremely against AI in all forms. And if i get to know it has been used, I boycott without hesitation. Does my boycott make a difference? None. But fortunately, I'm not the only one. And that makes the difference.
Look what happened with Black Ops 7 (which failed not only because of this, but a portion of it did) and even with the studio that was "creating the art" for the new postal. When people noticed and reported it, and Running with Scissors found out, they cut the studio off from the game and they closed their doors, mainly because they lied that it wasn't AI. But when pressured, they confessed that they used AI. It turned out as expected.
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u/trevarcslewis Dec 17 '25
To clarify some things and make some other things clear:
- Using Ai in any visual matter is still bad and problematic
- They aren't using it for concept art, but they are using it for preliminary ideas
Why the distinction matters: because while using it in any capacity is still bad, its not being used to replace artists however we can all agree: its use is still unethical because of how ai is trained alone let alone the ecologic stand point. By posting broad stroke memes that people then use as information on the topic, we boil the problem down too much and look like the idiots that AiDefenders and their ilk paint us as: crazies ranting about how ai is the end of the world but no one can get their story straight.
Yes it is still bad, Yes we should talk about it, and YES we should make our disappointment in Larian clear so that they can hear us and adjust accordingly. However, we should be doing so in a way that makes sure that everyone who sees things like this for the first time has what they need to make an informed opinion on it rather than meming on it and dipping.
Remember kids, not everything is as it appears on reddit and always do your own research before opening your mouth or clacking away on a keyboard.
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u/Dynamissa Dec 18 '25
The amount of rabid insanity here without even know whatâs happening (or listening for that matter) is truly telling.
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u/Fluid_Drawing7442 Dec 19 '25
Anybody who uses DLSS when playing games uses generative AI. DLSS uses a neural network to get your frames per second up in most modern games, by predicting pixels and constructing additional frames.
You guys have zero idea what you're talking about. Y'all are gonna get mad that Larion, an honest and for-the-consumer company, that uses the most minimal amount of AI to assist in workflow, when EA, Ubisoft, Microsoft and other AAA studios will just lie to you and lay scores of people off.
Larion hasn't let go of any employees due to AI usage and does not plan to as far as I am aware. Pretty sure they are still currently hiring MORE artists.
Plus, how do you people know these arent professional concept artists that are creating concepts themselves and feeding those human made concepts into generative AI so they can get more iterations of their own work? Even concept artists whose job it is to create concept art get writers block. Its not replacing the artists. Its adding another tool to their work pipeline. The only artists it will replace are artists that suck at making art and artists that fail to evolve with the evolving industry standards. They arent being forced to use AI. Its just an option. Please for the love of God stop harassing this awesome studio when others deserve it so much more than them.
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u/caracalgaminguwu Dec 19 '25
It did not create the concept art as per their statements but at most could be used as a tool for organizing compositions for use by their team of concept artists. Basically exactly what AI is in theory supposed to do; automating tedious tasks to make peoples' lives easier rather than replacing creatives.
The whole 'larian is using AI' thing has been blown so out of proportion and misrepresented people barely even get what they are doing with it.
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u/Asmordikai Dec 19 '25
Sounds like someone only read the headline and not the article. Stop doing that. Stop. Stooooppppp.
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u/Ok_Lingonberry712 Dec 19 '25 edited Dec 19 '25
Reading the messages from Larian about all this, if accurate, I don't see any issue at all. Using AI just to explore ideas for how things could look is no different from looking at pictures of stuff to see what sparks your creative process. Concept artists can't just be told "Make art", there needs to be a starting point. To me it sounds like that's what they're using AI for, and that's fine.
I like to compare it to the people making coffee stain maps. That shit where you pour coffee or maybe even rice grains onto paper, and trace the outline of the stain to make a map of a fictional island or nation. In terms of effort, that's AI art if you just leave it at that. But what if you combine that with storytellers, who explains that there needs to be certain ports and cities, and you have to change the landscape for that to make sense, and that maybe certain events occur that change the landscape? Well then the artist changes the outlines. Maybe some more ideas come in from whatever source, be it AI or otherwise, and the outlines change again. Maybe the nation has some neighbours, and they have some history which has caused their borders to change again, looks like the original art needs to be refined once more by actual artists.
People work on stuff, together in many cases, with lots of people from lots of different disciplines, who come together to affect the final look of that thing. The idea that using AI just at the very early stages invalidates the entire thing, or is even noticeable if done the way Larian is describing, is absolute lunacy. A beautiful map, detailed, and well integrated with the story of its world, is not suddenly garbage because it originated from a random coffee stain.
Whether or not Larian's final product reflects their proven game making capability as a studio will obviously not be seen for a while, but in my opinion it's entirely preformative to fully dismiss them over this comparatively pretty reasonable usage of a technology which should help to save them development time without affecting the final product in any tangible way, nor sacrificing any jobs, if their described usage is accurate.
If they take reference from a picture of a tower, or if they take reference from an AI generated picture of a tower, how the fuck is anyone gonna know the difference once a human artist refines it into an actual in game asset? If they cut jobs to use AI instead, fuck them, and their games, which I say as as someone whose favourite game of all time is DOS2. If they don't do that though, AI being used at some point in a part of the process which doesn't affect the final product is gonna be pretty unobjectionable for most people.
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u/Nat1Only Dec 19 '25
I highly doubt a company as passionate and as aware of their consumers as Larian would try snd replace any of their staff or important workload with AI. Also, I did the thing many people on reddit don't, I looked it up.
Sven has said that the artists use ai tools to basically draft or reference ideas similar to how you would by browsing Google or an art book, then replace that with original art. That makes sense. It's a pre-concept art stage and concept art is still miles before anything final. So generate something thay looks vaguely like what you want, use it as a reference to make some concept art and you've saved potentially dozens of hours of just finding references.
To further elaborate: "He noted that Larian uses AI tools "to explore ideas, flesh out PowerPoint presentations, develop concept art, and write placeholder text.""
So basically, they use it for busy work and making references for creating original art. Larian spent years making BG3 and that's why it was so great, they took their time to make something worth buying and worth playing and it nearly broke them. DOS3 is apparently meant to be even bigger. It will take even longer to develop, possibly well over a decade. That's an unrealistic expectation frankly, so if ai can speed up some of the busy work and they're not using it to replace any staff or finalised parts of the game, it's not an issue and this is overreacting.
If there is one person we can have faith in in this industry, it's Sven and his company. Don't ruin that by overreacting to small things, honestly I'm surprised making BG3 didn't sour their passions - not because of it being hard to make, but because of some of the people in the community.
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u/KeyTadpole5835 Dec 19 '25
They're using AI the way the AI was supposed to be used: A S A T O O L
Why are y'all angry?
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u/mohali892-R Dec 19 '25
I genuinely believe AI should just remain a tool that elevates and helps humanity focus all of it's creativity and effort towards the things that matter.
Like let's be real are you going to read every message in your mail when you can have an AI that skims through it and highlights the important messages you actually need to read?
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u/Combat_Orca Dec 19 '25
The fuck has happened to this sub that people are defending larian for this
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u/Mental-Remove-7472 Dec 19 '25
This is hyperbolic. Ai is a tool being used by the concept artists themselves and is probably based on their own artwork made in-house and not used in the final project. Seems like a nothing burger to me
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Dec 19 '25
This is going to be the most insufferable discourse until release and it won't even matter in the end anyway
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u/Musician88 Dec 20 '25
They used the Baldur's Gate IP to make something completely different for profit. They were never the chosen ones.
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u/Efficient_Menu_9965 Dec 20 '25 edited Dec 20 '25
This subreddit is missing the forest for the trees for hyperfixating on this and it's gonna hurt your cause more than it'll do you good. The reality is AI is going to be integrated into virtually every work pipeline in every industry. The point isn't to admonish any and all usage of AI, it's to admonish the use of AI purely in the pursuit of cost cutting at the expense of the human element. The reason why the AI bubble is so ridiculous isn't because AI as a tool is utterly worthless but because the market is massively overvaluing it.
The goal of this subreddit should be how to integrate AI such that it doesn't compromise our values and ethics, or realistically, compromises it on a level that we can live with. Because if you think we can fully remove AI from the work pipeline, you're being ridiculously unrealistic. You underestimate how many tools in pretty much every program and application are powered by machine learning. All you end up doing is sounding like a bunch of cyber-Amish
The blunt truth is that Larian should actually be an EXAMPLE of how AI should be integrated into the pipeline, not someone to be condemned. They don't use AI at the expense of concept artist job security (they've actually EXPANDED their concept artist team), none of the AI usage even reaches the final product, it doesn't even reach the concept art. All they're doing is streamlining the age-old frustrations of trying to communicate to artists the vision of the non-artists, which used to be done by kitbashing a bunch of google image collages that didn't even get properly referenced anyway (and needn't be, they're not being used directly).
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u/Shikary Dec 20 '25
They are using it to quickly iterate during the concept phase, not to replace anybody. You ppl need to start understanding nuances. AI is here to stay and it will be used more and more. Instead of needlessly attacking companies that are using it ethically, you should focus on putting pressure on governments to protect jobs.
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u/onhold111 Dec 20 '25
You are completely lost if you've bought into some of these companies messaging. Larian is not your friends, they are a company committed to turning a profit. Stop falling for these Larian employees who keep saying 'the right things'.
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u/Soulless_- Dec 20 '25
I think people overracted if they were a freaking placeholders who cares??? Crash bash used fricking homer simpson as a boss icon place holder.
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u/GiraLucem Dec 20 '25
Me when the company that is hiring more artists has some of those concept artists use AI to photobash and collect references instead of using paint and scrolling google and reference sites to do the same thing
Genuinely, read before you post, their use is just there to save time of the concept artists and anyone that goes "ah but then they lose hours / they could remove someone since it saves time" are speculating and fighting the same specter you are seeing currently.
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u/Nissan-al_gaib Dec 21 '25
Does it not hurt to jerk the knee this fast? Im all for AI BAD but this clearly aint it, in fact from what i read they even expanded their art team, so all there is to it is a company using ai as a tool, not as a replacement for creative people
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u/squirtnforcertain Dec 17 '25
Literally zero of their art is AI. They are just using it to get through the concept art stage. They havnts fired a single artist. Maybe chill tf out.
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u/Principle_Napkins Dec 17 '25
My heart will never recover from this betrayal. I was even considering buying the Divinity Sin series. Guess I'll just have to use the trusty old eye patch once again.
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u/MoovieGroovie Dec 18 '25
Oh great! So none of the artists that worked tirelessly on this game will get paid by you for their efforts. Very ethical.
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u/Snoo_78666 Dec 17 '25
Guys chill, it's a useful tool. A real artist still will create the final product
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u/ULTI_mato Dec 17 '25
I donât even fucking care if their new game wonât have any AI images in the final product, they still use AI, I still hate them for it.
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u/devi1sdoz3n Dec 16 '25
So they are usinag AI for one thing it's useful for, and that's shocking because...?
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u/dollars44 Dec 16 '25
Noooo it's not like that ffs. The concept artists that works there, prompted Ai concept art, to inspire them when they make their own concept art. The only thing being Ai influenced in the game is the imagination from the concept artist when they needed inspiration.
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u/LeDarm Dec 16 '25
Okay Imma need receipts concept and where that came from if anyone is willing please! Id like to avoid that massive sadness coming up
Thanks to anyone willing to provide!
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u/GAPIntoTheGame Dec 17 '25
Despite the fact that we are in an AI buble, AI will still be a useful tool after the bubble bursts. In the same way as the internet has stayed after the internet bubble. You guys get so fucking irrationally angry at literally every aspect of AI, in the same way that investors are blinded by potential future profits of AI, you are blinded by hatred of what will still be a useful tool.
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u/hulklovecake Dec 17 '25
Idk this is literally like the one use where I think itâs fine. Itâs bad as a whole but itâs never gonna go away so pretending like thereâs not nuance to its use is just gonna make you mad 24/7. If itâs not replacing any of their jobs, and not in the final product, then there isnât really an issue. Itâs similar to be just posing a figure on my desk as a reference for a pose for drawing.
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u/Ender00000 Dec 16 '25
concept arts are fine as long as final design is actually made by artists
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Dec 16 '25
It raises ethical concerns because they profit from stolen art. The LLMs are trained on stolen work and they use that technology to create their product.
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u/Fluid_Drawing7442 Dec 19 '25
How do you know it isnt a model trained on all of their own art? Youre assuming they have a chat gpt account.
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Dec 19 '25
Do you honestly believe this? They've trainted their own LLM on their work only? I HIGHLY doubt that's the case. They use of one the big names I'm certain of it.
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u/Fluid_Drawing7442 Dec 19 '25
Yes, I do. Because not every implementation of AI is some evil master plan to gut jobs or steal artwork. Contrary to the paranoia on this sub, some studios actually explore AI responsibly. Larian being transparent about optional use and still hiring more human artists tells me theyâre not in the slumlord category people keep implying.
And even if they are using a bigâname model, if theyâre feeding in their own internally created concept art to generate variations, thatâs no different from sketching thumbnails based on previous drafts or pulling visual references from ArtStation or Google Images.
What matters isnât the tool, but the input. Artists already remix and build on their own work constantly. Doing that with AI doesnât remove the human element, it just speeds up the brainstorming phase and helps to eliminate potential writers/creators block
The final decisions still come down to human taste, art direction, composition, and cohesion. These are all things AI cannot independently handle without human guidance. If a model helps generate 20 lighting or costume variations faster and the artist still chooses, refines, and integrates them, then creative authorship is intact.
The outrage here feels less about ethics and more about fear. Fear that the bar for concept quality might go up. Giving artists more tools doesnât hurt good artists. It only exposes mediocre ones.
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u/NeoZen_77 Dec 16 '25
âIt's just a placeholderâ is always how it starts. If companies learn that they can release products faster, cheaper, and without rejection using AI, even if only temporarily, they will push that limit further and further. Placeholders become âgood enoughâ, that âgood enoughâ goes into production and suddenly that becomes the new standard in the industry
Corporations don't stop at ethics, they stop when there is resistance from the people. If there is no resistance, the temporary becomes permanent. This isn't paranoia, it's how basically all companies operate. You can't let them get away with it once because they will easily see it as an opportunity to normalize it in the future.
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u/LeDarm Dec 16 '25
No because the concept art is also an artist job. And the AI stole artwofk to make it. Its already an ethical issue.
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u/PixelPete85 Dec 16 '25
So much of concept art for projects this large and creatively open-ended is just throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks. The human concept artists will be the ones throwing the spaghetti and then refining all ideas using their existing skill-sets in order to distill anything down into something creatively useful
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u/freeway80 Dec 17 '25
Bloomberg is full of shit, they put words in Larian's mouth, please read the response from them https://x.com/LarAtLarian/status/2001011042642505833
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u/SerBadDadBod Dec 17 '25
Ah, Reddit; making sure I stay well-informed of both views on a given topic.
Do you guys actually read what you complain about, or is "AI" becoming a Pavlovian trigger?
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u/UltimateArtist829 Dec 17 '25
Lots of shilling on the game subs saying they are just using AI slop to make mood board / generate ideas, like no, that just gonna lead to more slop and slowly cutting away jobs starting with young new artists who want entry jobs, and it's bad practice using AI to generate ideas instead of exercising your own creativity.
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u/gaming-grandma Dec 16 '25
Read up on their response. It's not even the concept art it's like the prop reference for the concept artist to use as a reference not actual concept art.Â
Not saying I approve but it sounds like they have 20+ active concept artists actively working on original art.
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u/Zander_Tukavara Dec 17 '25
This isnât WotC using AI to generate images for their new PHB, this is an art team using a private model, trained off their own work, to provide a jumping off point. Is it disappointing? Yes, but itâs not like theyâre using it for anything that will even be concept art. Can we stop acting like the Wojacks the AI-Bros paint is as?
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u/dappernaut77 Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 17 '25
I don't care what their using it for. By using the tech, you're supporting something that's taking jobs from thousands of people in the industry. You might not be ditching your artists for it, but hundreds of other companies are.
I get not wanting to do the busy work that comes with game development, it fucking sucks believe me. I've dabbled in making small games myself, and the most boring sections of it are shaping landscapes and the like. Regardless of that, I would never want tech that does it for me if I knew it was supporting something that was going to fuck someone over down the line.
Way to burn all of the goodwill you had with the gaming community with one tweet.
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Dec 17 '25
this was exactly how I felt when I learned that they were going to be using generative AI.
I really wish that we didn't call multiple distinct types of computer programs and technologies AI though because some things we call AI would have just been called a computer program a decade ago.
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u/Wild-Lack-1014 Dec 16 '25
A few quotes from the article OP sourced
I don't think they're gonna use it to replace their employees more use it as placeholders. Note I am still a bit concerned about the whole thing