[Virtual Human 2.0] "Human-Level Virtual Humans Possible Within the Next 5 Years"

Interview with Kim Seong-gon, Cleon Vice President
"Korea Leading Globally in Virtual Humans"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] With the advancement of virtual human creation technology, virtual humans that are more human-like than actual humans are flooding the market. They can make dozens of facial expressions and showcase various outfits more perfectly than real models. Moreover, due to the popularization of technology, a certain level of virtual humans can now be produced for around 5 million KRW. Considering that some virtual humans required about 1 billion KRW to produce, this is about 1/200th of the cost.

However, virtual humans have not received great enthusiasm from the public. This is because virtual humans are still insufficient to be called ‘human.’ Although the graphics level has become close to real life, they still only operate according to given scenarios. Some even evaluate that, like the cyber singer ‘Adam’ in 1998 who enjoyed brief popularity before disappearing, virtual humans will end up as a short-lived trend.

Kim Seong-gon, Vice President of Cleon, asserted, “Virtual humans will reach a human-like level in five years.” He explained, “The development speed of ultra-large AI is happening faster than we expected. A human-like level will be achieved in five years, and if the entry barriers are lowered a bit, consumers will be able to interact with virtual humans in general services as early as three years from now.”

In professional fields, AI is already replacing humans in some cases. For everyday conversations, AI needs to cover all topics in unpredictable areas, requiring a higher level of AI. However, in specialized fields, the scope of conversation is limited, making the range AI needs to predict clearer. A representative field is healthcare. In some countries, AI is already being used in new drug development and clinical trials.

The fact that companies worldwide are accelerating the construction of extended virtual worlds (metaverse) is also expected to promote the use of virtual humans. Vice President Kim said, “Humans fundamentally have a desire to expand and grow,” adding, “The next place humans will turn their eyes to is the metaverse world.”

He continued, “In the past, game avatars limitedly replaced me, but in the metaverse world, people will look for subjects that realistically replace themselves, and this will be completed by virtual humans.” To this end, Cleon is currently conducting a collaborative project with Meta. Meta recently partnered with Qualcomm to develop extended reality (XR) technology, accelerating its metaverse business.

Vice President Kim predicted that the currently supply-driven virtual human market will rapidly shift to a technology-driven market. He evaluated, “Initially, some companies introduced virtual humans to claim the title of ‘the first company to utilize virtual humans,’ and even now, supply exceeds demand.”

He added, “As Cleon lowered initial construction costs and reduced virtual human production costs to around 5 million KRW by utilizing existing technology in different ways, the market will grow centered on technology in the future. Along with this, the utility of virtual humans will increase, and the market will grow rapidly.”

Vice President Kim said, “Korea’s virtual human technology is evaluated as one of the global leading countries, which conversely means that overseas markets are not as developed as Korea’s. Since there is great growth potential in overseas markets as well, we will take the lead in market development.”