Baldur’s Gate 3 actor Neil Newbon, who plays Astarion in the hit 2023 RPG, is once again making it very clear he doesn’t want generative AI anywhere near his video games.
Of course, Newbon has never been shy to share his feelings on AI, having previously said it “sucks,” “doesn’t work very well,” and “sounds crap” alongside other more expletive-laden repudiations.
During the finale of his 126-part YouTube video series in which he played through the entire game, Newbon once again ripped into the prospect of generative AI being used in video game development, specifically because when amazing games like Baldur’s Gate 3 exist without the help of AI, why would anyone want to use it?
“It just goes to show to you, folks, fuck AI,” Newbon said. “This game could never be made by AI. It’s too interesting, subtle, crazy, off the wall, pathos-filled. It’s too human. So yeah, there’s no fucking way AI could make this.”
While the industry has more or less been forced to accept some degree of AI in things like task automation, generating art, writing, or acting is the big sticking point. That’s why, despite initially admitting to and defending the use of AI in concept art development for Divinity, Larian has since pulled a 180 and committed to there being no such use of the tech.
Somehow only slightly off topic: Larian says Divinity won’t have AI-generated penises: “I can guarantee that all the genitals in the game be manually crafted with love”
