Krafton has announced a new executive role, Chief AI Officer (CAIO), and the seat will be filled by Kangwook Lee.
The new role is set up to oversee the company’s AI research and development, something that Lee has been doing at Krafton since he took on the role of Head of Krafton AI back in 2022.
There are three areas of Krafton’s AI strategy under Lee: elevating gameplay, supporting development teams, and looking at long-term research opportunities.
When it comes to elevating gameplay, Krafton plans to continue developing AI features that bring more immersion and player interactions to the table. For example, Krafton and Nvidia have worked together in the past to create Co-Playable Characters (CPCs), AI companions who can interact with players in a human-like manner.
These CPCs can be seen currently in inZOI, where they’re called Smart Zois that can interact with players while also building their own personalities over in-game time. It’s an experimental feature for the early-access life sim. CPCs are also planned to come to PUBG: Battlegrounds soon with the PUBG Ally.
Krafton believes it can use AI to enhance the player experience and elevate gameplay without compromising the human-crafted elements in its games.
When it comes to supporting development teams, Krafton is investing in AI that targets “repetitive or technical tasks” to free up time for developers to spend on the creative side of development, such as creative planning, storytelling, and other design tasks.
Krafton has reiterated that it sees AI as a tool that can be used to support workers and let them focus on their craft. Additionally, AI analytics tools will also be used in accordance with standard privacy practices.
Last but not least is Krafton’s goal of researching long-term AI opportunities. For example, the company is currently researching physical AI and robotics alongside Ludo Robotics to create physics-based virtual worlds.
This research is focused on software intelligence, and Krafton is still remaining focused on games, with plenty of games in the pipeline.
Kangwook Lee has plenty of experience in this area, getting his PhD in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley. He also worked as a tenured Associate Professor in the same department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. On top of it all, he has published 57 peer-reviewed papers that have been presented at global AI conferences, including NeurIPS, ICML, and ICLR.
Lee shared a statement on his new role:
“KRAFTON uses AI to amplify human imagination and creativity, not replace it. Our goal is to build better experiences for players while investing in technologies that empower our teams and support long-term innovation.”
