NCSoft-AWS Lead the Popularization of Generative AI

Amazon Web Services (hereinafter AWS) and NCSOFT are launching efforts to popularize generative artificial intelligence (AI) in South Korea.

NCSOFT has released a large language model (LLM) based on AWS's Amazon SageMaker JumpStart, which provides pre-trained open-source models to help customers start machine learning (ML). By launching the Barco LLM product line on Amazon SageMaker JumpStart, NCSOFT aims to accelerate the adoption of generative AI that can create new content across various industries. Additionally, it plans to support domestic companies in easily building specialized applications using their native language.

LLMs are a subset of ML models focused on language that can power a wide range of generative AI applications, from text processing and summarization to question answering. While these LLMs have the potential to revolutionize industries, building, training, and deploying them can take weeks to months and cost billions of Korean won, making them inaccessible to many companies. Amazon SageMaker JumpStart enables customers to easily start generative AI by leveraging pre-built solutions like NCSOFT’s Barco LLM, customize models with their own datasets without training from scratch, and launch new applications tailored to specific use cases.

NCSOFT’s Barco LLM product line is currently available to AWS customers. For example, game developers can use Barco LLM for game creation, visual content production, and scriptwriting through text prompts. Furthermore, NCSOFT announced the release of a Korean-English bilingual model to support companies operating globally. In 2024, it plans to launch Barco Art, a text-to-image generation tool; Barco Text, a text generation and management tool; and Barco Human, an integrated tool for creating, editing, and managing digital humans such as virtual customer service agents.

NCSOFT has launched Barco LLM on AWS Marketplace, a digital catalog containing thousands of third-party software listings that can be easily searched, tested, purchased, and deployed on AWS. This allows NCSOFT to supply Barco LLM to more than 330,000 global active customers using AWS Marketplace and streamline the purchasing process.

Lee Yeon-su, head of NCSOFT’s NLP Center, said, "We are pleased to launch LLM on Amazon SageMaker JumpStart, providing companies with a platform to experiment with new use cases and develop innovative solutions for existing and new challenges. Generative AI is driving innovation across many industries, and Korean language models for domestic developers will be the first step toward popularizing this groundbreaking technology. We look forward to accelerating the development of more user-friendly generative AI options in collaboration with AWS."

Ham Ki-ho, CEO of AWS Korea, said, "The gaming, entertainment, and e-commerce industries are rapidly adopting generative AI and cloud technologies to keep up with the demand for accelerated content development. NCSOFT is helping developers and companies use generative AI in Korean, enabling more businesses to easily create high-quality content for Korean audiences, gamers, and shoppers. We will support NCSOFT in delivering LLM to more customers worldwide through AWS Marketplace."