NAVER Z Expands Avatar Use Cases Beyond ZEPETO, Showcases Integration with Google's latest language model PaLM 2 at Google I/O 2023

• Google's latest language model PaLM 2 comes to life as a ZEPETO avatar at Google I/O 2023

SEONGNAM, South Korea, May 11, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- NAVER Z, an operator of a leading virtual world platform ZEPETO, unveiled today its bold vision to extend the reach of ZEPETO avatars beyond ZEPETO to enhance user experience, expression, and personalized communication. As a groundbreaking milestone, the integration of ZEPETO avatar and Google's latest generation language model PaLM 2, was introduced at Google I/O, an annual developer conference held by Google, on May 10 in Mountain View, California.

The demonstration is the first instance of a ZEPETO avatar being combined with a service outside of ZEPETO and is now accessible through GitHub. Until now, ZEPETO avatars have served as powerful self-expression tools within the ZEPETO platform. However, NAVER Z aims to transcend boundaries, enabling users to harness the full potential of their avatars across various services and platforms. The company plans to develop various AI use cases of ZEPETO avatars to enhance the user experience and expression, increase engagement, and support more personalized communication in the fields such as education, entertainment, and customer centers. 

Developers and businesses interested in utilizing the ZEPETO Avatar SDK can now collaborate with ZEPETO by contacting ZEPETO Support Center. Additionally, NAVER Z plans to launch a dedicated API public site in the coming months. These initiatives aim to facilitate seamless integration and provide convenient access to ZEPETO's avatars.

"Seeing an AI character come to life as a ZEPETO avatar and speak with such fluidity and depth is truly inspiring," said Ricky Kang, the Global Head of Business at NAVER Z.  "We are exploring various ways we can support user expression and creativity on and off our platform, including avatar services powered by large language models(LLM). We believe a combination of advanced large language models and avatars will infinitely expand what is possible in the metaverse, and we are excited to be a part of it."

Google's Senior Product Manager of Partner Innovation Jay Ji commented, "We are excited to showcase Talking Characters including ZEPETO's 3D avatar using PaLM API. We hope that the Talking Character kit can be used more broadly across brands, products and services."

About NAVER Z (ZEPETO): ZEPETO is a burgeoning avatar-centric social universe where anyone can create whatever they imagine and share with the world. Since 2018, over 400 million global users have relied on ZEPETO to find community, explore new forms of entertainment, and express themselves through their avatars alongside the world's most popular Brands, IP, and Celebrities. As a community platform powered by millions of creators via ZEPETO Studio, our metaverse is one of the most intuitive, immersive, and inclusive virtual spaces that exist today.
Learn more about NAVER Z and ZEPETO at www.naverz-corp.com/en/

SOURCE NAVER Z