Tencent, Vivo, Qualcomm to Create AI E-Sports Team for King of Glory – Yicai Global
What happened: The AI divisions of US chip-maker Qualcomm and Chinese smartphone brand Vivo are teaming up with Tencent to create an e-sports team for the gaming titan’s flagship title, “Honour of Kings.” The team, called Supex, will be based on Qualcomm’s fourth-generation artificial intelligence (AI) engine. Supex will be “trained” with data taken directly from the game interface, as well as online battles.
Why it’s important: The three companies may be hoping to replicate the success of OpenAI’s virtual team for “Dota 2,” which beat the champions of the battle-based e-sport last week, then opened up to other human challengers for three days. Similar publicity for “Honour of Kings” could boost the profile of the already-popular game, appealing to the app’s faithful core user base. Qualcomm, which previously licensed its technology for Vivo’s products, has stated that the move is part of the company’s shift to creating smartphone-targeted AI.