Krafton said on the 16th it will unveil a new mode, "Ally Duo," for its flagship game "PUBG: Battlegrounds," applying the artificial intelligence (AI) technology PUBG Ally, as a beta service.
Ally Duo, which will run for two weeks starting on the 17th, is a new mode in which users form a two-person team with Ella, an AI character, and play together. Users communicate with Ella by voice and cooperate in various situations such as movement, item collection, and strategy building.
Ella is the character name implemented based on Krafton's AI technology PUBG Ally. Ella is a new type of CPC (Co-Playable Character), a character capable of mutual cooperation, that plays together with game users. It is designed to understand users' voice commands and game situations and respond proactively by using an on-device small language model based on Nvidia ACE technology.
PUBG Ally interacts with users in real time based on speech-to-text (STT) and text-to-speech (TTS) technologies. Unlike existing NPCs (non-player characters) that react according to preset conditions, it understands users' voice commands along with changing game situations and generates the necessary actions and responses.
In situations requiring immediate responses, such as movement and securing items, it minimizes latency and acts quickly. In situations requiring contextual understanding, such as strategy building, it makes judgments by synthesizing the game situation and conversation flow, and implements cooperative play aligned with the actual flow of play, Krafton said.
Ally Duo supports Korean, Chinese, and English.
Lee Kang-uk, Krafton's chief AI officer (CAIO), said, "Through this beta service, we are able to present a new form of play that Ella and users create together," and added, "Based on users' diverse feedback, we will continue to drive innovation in game experiences using AI technology."