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**NCSoft Targets Digital Humans With Self-Developed Large Language Model**
A domestic game company is revealing its self-developed, ultra-large AI, the first of its kind in the industry. They have built a large language model (LLM) with up to 520 billion parameters and plan to apply it to a ‘Digital Human’ and target the B2B market within the year. The company’s CSO Yoon Song, who has recognized the importance of AI and engaged in over a decade of fundamental technology research, is being lauded for this advancement.
According to industry sources on the 9th, NCSoft will sequentially unveil its self-developed LLM this month. They have been researching language models at the Natural Language Processing (NLP) center since last year, and currently possess LLMs with 7 billion and 13 billion parameters, with a goal to expand this to 520 billion and showcase it in the form of an API. The name for the LLM is also expected to be confirmed soon.
The LLM is smaller than OpenAI’s GPT-3 (175 billion) or Naver’s HyperClova (204 billion), but larger than Kakao’s ‘KoGPT’ (6 billion), making it an effective tool for specific vertical services.
For their first project, they plan to provide their LLM to DreamAce’s in-car solution. The AI will showcase a service where it summarizes news tailored to the driver in spoken language and reads it out in real-time. They are also planning a finance-specific AI service. In 2020, NCSoft launched a joint venture, December&Company, to establish an ‘AI Easy Investment Securities Company’ with KB Securities.
NCSoft’s ultimate goal is to create a Digital Human. They aim to develop a Digital Human that can interact with users through the LLM acting as a brain by the end of the year. A virtual human, ‘TJ Kim’, modeled after Kim Taek-jin, the company’s representative, was revealed in March at ‘GDC 2023’. The AI reproduced Kim’s facial expressions, manner of speech, and voice, causing quite a stir in the industry. With the addition of the LLM, even more natural communication is expected.
The head of NCSoft’s Vision AI Lab, Kim Min-jae, emphasized in an interview at the end of last year that “most Digital Humans look human but can’t interact with users like a human. To achieve this, we are focusing our R&D capabilities. Even with the know-how to create 3D characters, creating high-quality Digital Humans is a different dimension.”
Yoon Song, NCSoft’s CSO, is hailed for her early investment in the possibilities of AI. She earned her doctorate in engineering as the youngest Korean at MIT and is known as a ‘genius girl’. In 2011, as the vice president, she established the first AI center among domestic game companies. Currently, the research staff exceeds 300, and the amount poured into R&D for the past three years (2020-2022) amounts to about 1.2834 trillion won ($1.1 billion). Over the past 12 years, the company has focused more on acquiring data and original technologies than on short-term results. Their self-researched technologies are now blossoming into Digital Humans.
An NCSoft official said, “Our AI technology is being developed to be applied to various service areas in the medium to long term, not just limited to games. As a super-large AI that supports multiple languages, including Korean and English, we plan to expand globally with various partners.”
https://news.mt.co.kr/mtview.php?no=2023070616005870788
https://news.mt.co.kr/mtview.php?no=2023070616005870788