The Astronauts CEO Adrian Chmielarz is the developer of the beloved walking simulator The Vanishing of Ethan Carter and the Early Access fantasy first-person shooter. Witch fire — intervened in the discussion surrounding Larian Studios' use of generative artificial intelligence.
For context, just before this month, Larian CEO Sven Vincke found himself in hot water for saying the studio playing with generative AI in the early stages of production for Divinity. Later he clarified that RPG will not launch with any AI generated assets – developers have been allowed to use the technology if they so choose for early ideation, and the studio is ostensibly not trying to replace human developers.
However, backlash persisted, with many arguing over the ethical and environmental impacts of generative AI; doubts remain as to whether the game will feature artificial intelligence or not.
Talking to TechRaptorChmielarz said the developer was simply “a little unlucky” with the way the news broke. “I think Larian is definitely not evil,” he added. “From what they've written, I can see that they're… taking a deep dive into what exactly this will mean for Larian in the future, and so we'll see what happens.”
However, the head of the Witchfire studio is categorically against the use of this technology in development. Chmielarz explained that he used artificial intelligence programs to clean up the placeholder text since English is not his native language, but Gen AI is not used anywhere else in the fantasy shooter.
Elsewhere, he offered a rather refreshing take on why people are so concerned about AI game development, explaining that he really likes how much people care about where their art comes from: “They want to connect with other people through art.”
We favor Divinity over Baldur's Gate 3 because developers Larian didn't like “doing D&D stuff.”
