**Smilegate expands AI virtual human business**
*Next year, ‘Media Studio’ will be opened to showcase technology*
Smilegate, a domestic game company celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, is taking a leap forward as a comprehensive intellectual property (IP) company. Starting with virtual human IP, it will expand its business in broadcasting and entertainment. The ‘Media Studio’, which showcases its own artificial intelligence (AI) technology to users, is also planned to open next year.
Smilegate introduced the AI â??â??technology under development at the first technology sharing event ‘AI Tech Day’ held online on the 22nd and revealed the direction of next year’s IP business.
Smilegate has an ‘AI Center’, an R&D organization within the group. Established in August 2020, the organization helps groups advance their games by providing AI creation tools, including research on the technology needed to create virtual humans. It also supports related technologies so that games can be serviced more stably.
The biggest achievement of the AI â??â??center is the virtual human ‘Han Yua’, which was unveiled in 2019. Han Yua is continuing her artist activities in various fields, such as releasing a sound source this year and being selected as a food advertisement model. Recently, she has been showing off her writing skills by writing a column for a newspaper. Han Yoo-ah is also at the center of Smilegate’s IP business next year.
At the AI â??â??Tech Day held on the same day, Han Dae-woong, head of Smilegate AI Center, said, â??Han Yoo-ah plans to release albums in various genres beyond dance and ballad. â??There will be an opportunity to meet Han Yoo-ah in real life soon,â? he said. For example, it is representative to use it in the form of a virtual announcer.
He continued, “Han Yoo-ah is based on AI and is still developing. He is a friend with a brighter future. Although he debuted as a singer, he is trying to spread his capabilities as a model, writer, and painter as a good influence.”
However, her limitation is that it is difficult to communicate with people on her own. Director Han emphasized, “We are focusing on research so that Yua Han can communicate with emotions like a human with the goal of ‘human AI, fun AI’.”
The virtual human YouTuber (YouTube creator) ‘SeAH MK03’ produced by Smilegate is currently running the YouTube channel ‘SeAH Story’. Currently, the number of subscribers exceeds 726 million. Next year, SeAH’s broadcast concept will also be diversified and provided.
In addition, the AI â??â??Center will open a media studio next year to showcase various technologies. It is a space where users can directly experience the process of designing game characters, items, backgrounds and creating virtual human voices with AI. Manager Han said, â??The goal is not to simply create images, but to create our own media studio using IPs such as Korean data and our characters.â?
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