South Korean video game developer and publisher NCSoft has created its own AI language model named VARCO LLM. The name is used for all the models, products and services that are based on its language models and it stands for ‘Via Al, Realise your Creativity and Originality.’
The LLMs working with VARCO can be grouped into four types: Foundation, Prompt, Dialogue and Generative models. How well these models perform in each category is linked to the number of parameters they have.
VARCO looks like the first language model that’s been developed by a Korean company and is also being offered via Amazon SageMaker JumpStart, a hub for machine learning that includes basic models, built-in algorithms and prebuilt ML solutions. VARCO is now accessible to Amazon SageMaker users worldwide and they can try it out free with a one-month trial.
Empowering creators to build new worlds
Jehee Lee, chief research officer of NCSoft says, “VARCO demonstrates the highest level of performance among other Korean models of similar sizes available to date. NCSoft will leverage VARCO to offer new original value and experiences in various domains as well as game content development.”
Later this month, NCSoft will introduce a bilingual model that works with both Korean and English. Also, the company has plans to gradually release more language models of various sizes and categories. For now, NCSoft has launched three generative AI services that are powered by VARCO LLM.
These offerings include ‘VARCO Art,’ a text-to-image generation tool; ‘VARCO Text,’ a tool for creating and managing text; and ‘VARCO Human,’ a comprehensive tool for crafting, editing, and managing digital humans.
Together, these three services will be known as ‘VARCO Studio’, to enhance productivity in various aspects of game development, including game design and artwork. The company aims to expedite different AI research and business ventures including digital humans, generative AI platforms and conversational language models.
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
