Talos Principle 3 Devs Weigh In on AI—“Surprisingly Hopeful” Take

The studio behind the celebrated AI-themed puzzle series The Talos Principle has weighed in on today’s Large Language Models, and the takeaway is surprisingly hopeful. Croteam’s upcoming third mainline entry, The Talos Principle 3, is positioned as the closing chapter of the franchise, and generative AI is expected to show up in its broader discussion—especially around what comes after death.

What Croteam’s writers want to say about LLMs (and the fear cycle)

In a recent interview, Croteam co–chief operating officer Davor Hunski, along with writers Verena and Jonas Kyratzes, explained what drives The Talos Principle 3 as a story. The team’s core reason, according to the writers, is that they believe many people have lost hope—and they feel that hope is hard to find in the narratives being offered around them.

Jonas Kyratzes also pointed to a confusing reality in how modern society talks about technology: people often label things “artificial intelligence” without those systems matching the full meaning of the phrase. He noted that there’s genuinely interesting work happening in language modeling and machine learning, but he also criticized the presence of companies pouring money into projects they may not fully understand or be able to profit from.

The Talos Principle 3 sits at the end of a series that has always taken a philosophical approach. Unlike games such as Portal that often prioritize mechanics first, Croteam builds its narrative around the gameplay loop itself—using play as the delivery method for the series’ themes. Jonas described a recurring goal across the games: the characters aren’t aiming to become “more than human,” but rather “more human.”

Verena then recalled a conversation with her father about AI. He believed AI would turn evil because the people building it were evil. Verena pushed back with the question: what if that assumption wasn’t true? That challenge ties directly into the reason for the studio’s tone. She said the team is telling this story because so many people don’t see hope in what they’re consuming—across games and beyond—where dystopian themes dominate. Her argument is that if the stories never include the possibility of hope, players and audiences won’t believe change is still possible.

She described her own reaction as well: she looks at the world and thinks, “we’re screwed,” but then asks the counterfactual—what if enough people could hope again, so that something could actually change? That measured optimism is also framed as a response to the current media climate, even if it might look out of step with how bleak coverage can feel.

Why Croteam isn’t focused on “LLMs right now”

Even with language models in the conversation, Croteam staff reportedly isn’t interested in making the game a commentary on LLMs in the immediate present. Jonas said the topic has been raised in discussions with the team since the first game, and he doesn’t sound eager to treat it as a day-to-day controversy. Instead, he and the writers are more concerned with how these technologies could develop over the long term—and how they might be used to explore humanity in a deeper, more meaningful way.

This approach also connects to the series’ timeline. The Talos Principle launched in 2014, which predates the current LLM boom, meaning the story’s focus is meant to be on something closer to “real” artificial intelligence rather than the statistical patterning many modern language tools rely on. Verena ultimately framed it as a broader effort: she acknowledged that The Talos Principle is only one game against a large wave of dystopian storytelling, but insisted that the conversation still has to start somewhere.

Next up: the final entry and the themes players should expect

The Talos Principle 3 will wrap up the franchise’s main narrative with its third mainline release, though there’s currently no official launch window. As the studio’s puzzle series continues to stand out for featuring robot protagonists while tackling big, brainy ideas, the game’s subject matter is described as going well beyond the common, modern conversation about AI risks.

With Serious Sam also on the horizon, it’s likely Croteam will shift toward less cerebral themes for a while after the final Talos Principle chapter lands. For players who want a highly philosophical experience about what it means to be human—and how that question overlaps with artificial intelligence—The Talos Principle 3 is shaping up to be the place to look next.