SOOP Enhances Capabilities with AI... Developing 'Manager' for Chatroom Management

Cho Hyeong-jin, Head of SOOP Service Division (left), and Chae Jeong-won, Head of eSports and Game Content Business Division. Photo by Lee Jeong-yoon

"We aim to utilize artificial intelligence (AI) technology to help users and streamers communicate and enhance their experiences."

The streaming platform SOOP has stepped up efforts to strengthen services using AI. On the 15th, at Korea's largest game exhibition, G-STAR 2024, Cho Hyeong-jin, Head of the Service Division, explained in a joint interview, "AI technology is in the process of becoming more widespread," adding, "We previously lacked the integration of desired technologies into our services, but I believe these issues are now being resolved."

The day before, SOOP unveiled customized AI solutions for streamers and users: SAVVY (Soop Ai Virtual Video Yielder) and SOOPI (SOOP Personalized Intelligence).

SAVVY is a solution that generates videos using AI based on the streamer’s personality and activities, providing uninterrupted entertainment to users even when the streamer briefly steps away during a broadcast. SOOPI, conceptualized as "My Video Assistant," was developed to enhance each user’s viewing experience. It learns users’ content preferences to offer optimized streamer and content recommendations, as well as personalized features like rewatching missed videos.

SOOP employs watermark technology to prevent issues such as deepfakes when AI generates videos. Cho said, "Instead of a phrase like 'This is a deepfake,' we plan to insert specific patterns or characters to indicate 'This video was generated by AI.'" He added, "We intend to include the SAVVY logo or similar marks so that users can recognize it, and we are exploring this direction."

Additionally, SOOP is developing AI for chatroom management during real-time communication. Cho stated, "We are conducting a separate project," and added, "Through something called an AI Manager, we plan to manage situations that require control during broadcasts."

Earlier in March, SOOP introduced a new corporate name, and last month, the domestic service name was changed from AfreecaTV to SOOP. Regarding this rebranding, Chae Jeong-won, Head of the eSports and Game Content Division, said, "We wanted to remove the words 'broadcast' and 'TV' because we see this as an industry leading trends."

With the rebranding, SOOP changed the term for broadcast hosts from BJ to streamer. However, the name of the sponsorship currency, Star Balloon, was retained. On this, Chae explained, "Since we aim for global service, we thought to change the name to streamer," adding, "Currently, there is no strong desire for further changes, so we kept the Star Balloon name, and there were also opinions about maintaining its authenticity."