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**[AI in game] (1) NCsoft “The goal of ‘digital human’, which is the culmination of AI technology in 2012″**
Recently, artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ‘ChatGPT’ is attracting attention, but the game industry has already introduced AI technology to game development for a long time. In other words, AI technology is contributing to the K-game market’s continued growth, such as exceeding 20 trillion won last year. The dependence on AI in the game development process is increasing. In the era of coexistence of ‘AI and games’, we looked at the current status of AI adoption by major game companies.
NCsoft (CEO Kim Taek-jin) was the first to introduce AI technology among domestic game companies. In 2011, an unfamiliar ‘AI R&D’ organization was created and AI technology was applied to game development. Now, 12 years later, the NLP (Natural Language Processing) Center and the AI â??â??Center have expanded into a vast organization with around 200 professional manpower.
An official from NCsoft said, “There have been attempts to apply AI to games in the past, but it was a low-level application such as pathfinding, automation, and difficulty adjustment.” he explained.
A representative example is the introduction of reinforcement learning-based AI multi-combat content to a massively multiple access role-playing game (MMORPG) for the first time in the industry. Reinforcement learning is a machine learning method that gives rewards and penalty points according to behavior in a given environment so that it can explore the method on its own.
For example, in ‘Lineage Remastered’, dozens of AI clans invade hunting grounds and show intelligent strategies like humans. If a user is lured into a one-on-one zone to overcome a numerical inferiority, he can see through it and find another enemy, or if he meets a strong opponent, he moves to a narrow room to create an advantageous battle environment.
NCsoft also added ‘Tower of Infinity’, a one-on-one battle with AI characters, in ‘Blade & Soul’ to eliminate barriers to entry into battle for new users. Recently, NC is concentrating its research on the development of artificial intelligence agents in not only competition between players (PvP) but also cooperation through cooperation (PvE).
AI translation technology was also introduced. In ‘Lineage W’, a global one-build game, users can check foreign languages â??â??in their own language through the game chat window. Your own chats are also instantly translated. ‘Voice to Text’, which automatically converts voice into text chatting, was also applied.
An official from NCsoft said, â??AI plays the role of an assistant in game development, greatly reducing work time and cost.â? It took an entire day, but with the introduction of AI technology, the work time and cost were drastically reduced.â?
NCsoft is also promoting a large-scale project called ‘Digital Human (Actor)’. The intention is to drastically improve the level of game service by combining NCSoft’s AI technology, such as deep learning, physics simulation, voice synthesis, and chatbot, as well as all-round capabilities such as content and graphics. In this regard, it is also in the process of building its own conversational AI engine. â?²Conversation technology â?²Large language model â?²Natural language understanding â?²Language data R&D are connected technologies. The goal was to equip a persona and perform an emotional reaction in consideration of the relationship with the other person like a real human being.
Last year, the company appointed Lee Jae-hee, a professor at Seoul National University, who was a master of computer graphics, animation and deep learning, as the chief research officer (CRO) in charge of the AI â??â??organization, and is focusing all its energy on digital humans. Along with this, the ‘Digital Actor Room’ was newly established, and Jung Byeong-gun, an expert in producing virtual influencers such as ‘Rosie’ and ‘Yeoriji’, was recruited.
Hong Won-joon, chief financial officer (CFO) of NCsoft, said in a conference call for the 2022 performance announcement, “The AI â??â??model that NCsoft is developing has completed experiments with a medium-sized version last year and plans to expand in the future.” NCsoft said, “AI technology is an indispensable key element in the game development process.”
https://www.inews24.com/view/1566960
https://www.inews24.com/view/1566960