NC

Previously, the relationship between humans and AI has been vertical and one-sided, with communication centered around the conveyance of information. However, with the advancement of generative AI, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion, the relationship between humans and AI is heading in a new direction. AI has started communicating via the language of humans and has finally achieved the ability to interact with them. This innovative advancement was made possible by large language models. Language models are revolutionizing society and the industrial world as they innovate our communication and interaction systems and present infinite possibilities.

Last August, NC unveiled the industry-first, internally developed language model, VARCO LLM. Created through several years of research and development experience at NC, VARCO LLM is a model that specializes in generating high-quality content required for game development. Furthermore, through VARCO LLM, NC is seeking new opportunities to grow and meet the needs of clients by providing innovative solutions to existing problems. In this article, we will examine the utilization of VARCO LLM and how it will bring change to our everyday lives.

Building and operating a large language model require a significant amount of funds and resources. This is the reason why, despite its value, numerous companies hesitate to build their own LLM. Additionally, existing LLMs are designed to provide broad responses based on data from various fields. Therefore, it is challenging to apply them to a specific industry or service.

NC concluded that various AI solutions suited to multiple domains were required to address the issues within existing businesses. VARCO LLM was the key. VARCO LLM builds a model for intelligent utilization within specific fields and helps companies organize their businesses while maintaining cost-efficiency.

VARCO LLM is a versatile model that supports both Korean and English language processing. Therefore, it is cost-effective and can be rapidly applied in various domains. VARCO LLM learns from high-quality Korean data collected through industry-university collaborations with multiple Korean universities, as well as from high-quality English data translated into Korean by NCMT, an internally developed real-time machine translation technology. As a language model trained with top-tier language data, it demonstrates the best performance relative to its size. Furthermore, NC possesses various AI/NLP technologies, such as NC TTS, which can generate a voice that speaks naturally and expresses different emotions, and OCR technology, an image analysis and recognition technology. These technologies can be combined with VARCO LLM to develop an even more creative and versatile NLP-based AI service.

VARCO Text is an AI text generator for games based on VARCO LLM. NC’s video game writers are utilizing it as a creative assistant. VARCO Text was trained with data from NC’s major IPs, such as Lineage, Aion, Blade & Soul, and more. This allows it to effortlessly create the core elements of a video game, including vast worlds, unique characters, complex stories, and various quests, with simple keywords and ideas.

Additionally, VARCO Text can help users speed up the process of developing creative ideas. It suggests various ideas to assist users in overcoming writer’s block. It offers different features, including summarizing extensive texts instantly and efficiently supporting the work of writers.

VARCO LLM’s possibilities extend beyond the field of video games. Other global big tech companies typically provide an API and encourage developers to build services themselves, similar to OpenAI. However, NC is taking a different approach. NC leverages specific data held by companies to fine-tune VARCO LLM. We can create an AI model utilizing a company’s own data, which is optimized for that specific company and provide the framework for it.

Currently, NC is gaining momentum for growth as it collaborates with automotive platforms, educational institutes, robotics institutes, and other public organizations. We have partnered with the vehicle platform DRIMAES to develop an AI news solution for vehicles that offers real-time economic news to drivers. DRIMAES is utilizing NC’s AI engine to build an AI news service and is developing an AI news summary and curation service for in-vehicle use.

NC has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the educational technology company Woongjin Thinkbig Co. and the AI education service company Tutorus Labs Inc., with the mutual goal of developing a personal AI education service for digital textbooks. NC is in the process of creating a personal AI education service that can automatically generate questions using VARCO LLM and deliver these questions through its proprietary text-to-speech technology, NC TTS.

Additionally, we are collaborating with the Aviation Meteorological Office to enhance the accessibility, accuracy, and usability of weather information, aiming to have a positive impact on society. Through this collaborative project, the Aviation Meteorological Office plans to utilize AI technology developed and improved by NC to generate aviation weather information and automatically create weather forecasts in sentence form using data gathered from each airport.

NC has also partnered with TWINNY to develop a conversational AI AMR by combining VARCO LLM and autonomous driving technology. TWINNY leverages NC’s AI engine, optimized for Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs), to engage in a proof-of-concept (PoC) by creating a conversational AI AMR and integrating it into specific services. They are using VARCO LLM to upgrade the existing self-driving robot, “NarGo,” into “Chatty NarGo,” which can interact with people. Initially, it will be deployed in malls to provide directions, assist visitors, and offer shop recommendations.

NC will go beyond the research of a universal extra-large language model and continue to study and develop models that specialize in multilingual and specific tasks. Moreover, we will strengthen partnerships with other companies to create models that specialize in particular fields and continuously enhance their performance to harness AI’s creative potential to the fullest. The diverse range of services stemming from language models will enable people to explore new opportunities, communication, and experiences. We anticipate that NC’s VARCO LLM will be the key to unlocking a new world through language.