Is the AI smell unbearable? Larian: The quality of AI-generated text is very poor and won't be used in Divinity.

“Baldur’s Gate 3” and “Divinity” developer Larian Studios’ lead writer stated that AI-generated text quality is extremely poor, receiving only a 3 out of 10 rating. The studio insists on not allowing AI to participate in narrative development, using it only for automated debugging.

Larian: AI-generated text quality is terrible, will not be used in Divinity

Famous game developer Larian Studios recently sparked online discussion after introducing AI technology into the development of “Divinity.”

In addition to clarifying that AI will not replace creative content or lead to layoffs, Lead Writer Adam Smith emphasized in a recent Reddit AMA that the team absolutely will not let AI text generation technology be involved in game dialogue, logs, or any other writing content.

Adam Smith revealed that Larian’s team had tested AI-generated text, but the results showed extremely poor quality. If the maximum score is 10, AI-produced content can only get about 3. He jokingly said that even his worst initial drafts are at least a 4.

Image source: Reddit Larian Studios Lead Writer responds to AI text quality issues

In game development, from initial text drafts to final recordings and implementation into the game, a large amount of manual editing and iteration is required, making the process very complex.

Therefore, Smith disclosed that the current experimental AI tools are only for internal research purposes. They cannot meet Larian’s standards for story and dialogue quality, so this technology will never be used in the actual narrative development of “Divinity.”

PC Gamer Editor: Editing AI text is more labor-intensive than starting from scratch

Regarding Larian’s approach, PC Gamer editor Ted Litchfield agrees.

Based on his experience with commercially available generative AI tools like Grok, Claude, or ChatGPT, the output always carries a kind of obnoxious flattery tone, and this “AI flavor” is very hard to remove.

He believes that editing and fixing these poorly written AI texts is more laborious than writing from scratch by humans. Rather than spending time polishing AI-generated awkward language, it’s better to stick with traditional creation methods, which also explains why Larian insists on not having AI ghostwrite.

Image source: Larian “Divinity” trailer

Larian applies AI for automation and debugging, allowing humans to focus more on creation

Larian has a clear direction for where AI technology should be used.

Previously, CEO Swen Vincke stated that AI is only used for “automating trivial tasks,” “white-box testing,” and “enhancing game responsiveness,” mainly focusing on cleaning up motion capture data and checking for logical contradictions in large branching storylines.

“Kingdom Come: Deliverance” director Daniel Vávra also believes that AI adoption in the industry is inevitable. If AI can help developers free themselves from tedious tasks and focus on core creative work, the benefits will outweigh the drawbacks.

Further reading:
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