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| Kangwook Lee, Head of KRAFTON Inc.'s Deep Learning Division detailing the CPC AI model at CES 2025 (Image Source: KRAFTON Inc.) |
KRAFTON Inc. unveiled an agentic framework in collaboration with NVIDIA at the 2025 edition of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2025), the world’s largest IT exhibition, held in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.A. The collaboration merges the strengths of KRAFTON, renowned for its exceptional game development expertise, with cutting-edge AI technology from NVIDIA. KRAFTON showcased AI innovation for games that’s poised to redefine the future of the global gaming industry. Last January 8, 2025 at Las Vegas' Fontainebleau Hotel, KRAFTON and NVIDIA showcased an innovative AI experience built with NVIDIA ACE technologies, presenting a bold vision for the future of gaming, including the introduction of ‘CPC’ (Co-Playable Character), an NPC (Non-Player Character) brought to life with generative AI.
A CPC is an AI companion that can interact with gamers, enabled by an on-device SLM (Small Language Model) for gaming, built with NVIDIA ACE technology. Unlike traditional NPCs (Non-Player Characters), CPCs are equipped with the ability to interact and cooperate with users, as they understand and respond to game situations in a human-like manner. KRAFTON's Deep Learning Division Head Kangwook Lee demonstrated CPC, describing it as “a groundbreaking character concept enabled by an on-device SLM (Small Language Model) for gaming, built with NVIDIA ACE.” He explained that unlike traditional NPCs, a CPC is capable of dynamic interactions with players, including real-time conversations, strategic cooperation, and flexible responses tailored to in-game scenarios. Lee highlighted KRAFTON’s commitment to expanding CPC technology across its gaming portfolio, including the PUBG IP Franchise and inZOI. He stated, “We will continue to innovate user experiences by integrating CPC into our games and aim to establish it as a benchmark for the gaming industry. Our collaboration with NVIDIA is a testament to the transformative potential of AI in gaming, and we plan to work closely together to push the boundaries of what is possible.”
KRAFTON also presented video demonstrations of CPC technology in action within its games. In the case of PUBG IP Franchise, the video revealed ‘PUBG Ally’, a CPC capable of engaging in casual conversations, adapting strategies, and refining gameplay to align with user dynamics. For inZOI, the demonstration highlighted ‘Smart Zoi’, a CPC with distinct personality traits and emotional depth, offering highly immersive simulation experiences through lifelike interactions with players. During CES 2025, KRAFTON set up demos with NVIDIA where attendees were able to experience CPC-integrated gameplay and its innovation firsthand. KRAFTON CEO Changhan ‘CH’ Kim said, “CES 2025 marks a significant milestone for KRAFTON as we work to unveil AI technology that will revolutionize the gaming industry.” He continued, “We plan to closely collaborate with NVIDIA to drive the transformation of the user experience with AI-powered innovation built with NVIDIA ACE, such as CPC, that’s poised to redefine the future of gaming.” For NVIDIA's Vice President of Developer Relations Keita Iida, “AI is transforming the way games are created and played. By bringing our innovative AI technology, such as NVIDIA ACE, to a range of their live games, KRAFTON is unlocking co-playable characters for new, unique experiences.”
Since the birth of its Deep Learning Division in 2022, KRAFTON has secured various core AI technologies such as LM/NLP (Natural Language Processing), 3D Vision & Animation, Voice Synthesis (STT/TTS), RL (Reinforcement Learning), and Multi-modal Learning. In addition, KRAFTON demonstrated the company’s R&D competitiveness by presenting several papers at international AI conferences, including NeurIPS (Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems), ICML (International Conference on Machine Learning), and ICLR (International Conference on Learning Representations).
