PUBG and inZOI are getting AI companion characters, courtesy of Nvidia
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By
Tomas Franzese Updated January 10, 2025 |
Nvidia and Krafton debuted “co-playable characters,” also called CPCs, at CES 2025. Nvidia Ace is used to create these AI-driven companions that players can interact with in-game and who will learn from their actions. We will first see these CPCs as part of inZOI when it launches in March before the tech expands out to other Krafton games like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
Battle royale PUBG is calling its system PUBG Ally, and it will allow solo players to drop into a match with an AI companion who they can ask for help. The CPC will look for specific pickups or vehicles the player asks for and dynamically fight alongside them in a gunfight. It will even speak back to the player with an AI-generated voice. Nvidia released a video showing off the PUBG Ally in action, which will give you a better idea of how this all works in-game.
Meanwhile, inZOI is a life simulator like The Sims, so it will let players create CPCs called “Smart Zoi.” A Smart Zoi will dynamically react to what’s going on around them in the game world more than a standard NPC would. A video shows how a Smart Zoi could feed a hungry NPC, help a lost one, and encourage a street performer all on its own. It will give AI-generated reasonings for each of its actions and, while sleeping, will analyze its actions the previous day to refine its behavior the next day.
These CPCs will function through the use of an on-device small language model, which Krafton created using Nvidia Ace. Krafton CEO CH Kim said in a press release that his company wants “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.”
While inZOI launches for Steam on March 28, PUBG: Battlegrounds is already available for free across PC and consoles. Krafton tells Digital Trends that CPCs will be first introduced in inZOI at its early access release as an “experimental feature.” After that, Krafton said it will “gradually share updates on its further development and the potential application of CPC technology to other games.”
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