NCSoft Ranks First in Korea's Largest 'AI R&D Challenge'

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] NCSoft announced on the 25th that it won first place in the 3rd Artificial Intelligence Grand Challenge hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT.

The 'Artificial Intelligence Grand Challenge' is the most prestigious AI challenge competition in Korea, hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT and organized by the Institute for Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation. Participants compete in problem-solving abilities based on voluntary preliminary research on the given problems.

NC's AI Center's Vision AI Lab (team name VARCO) participated in the 3rd competition held from 2019 to 2022 under the theme of 'Solving various missions in complex disaster situations using AI and robotics.' A total of 175 teams and 935 participants competed over four years, challenging their problem-solving skills in stages.

After placing for three consecutive years from 2019 to 2021, NC secured first place in the final round in 2022, proving its top-level Vision AI technology in Korea. They were recognized for their high problem-solving ability in the final task, 'Data collection using drones in disaster situations,' demonstrating potential applications beyond gaming in real-world environments.

NC plans to utilize the 'human, object, and text' recognition technologies accumulated through the 'Artificial Intelligence Grand Challenge' for research and development (R&D) of 'conversational digital humans' capable of natural interaction with people.