Krafton said it will leverage hyperrealism character production technology to create digital avatars of humans and also tap into artificial intelligence (AI), text-to-speech, speech-to-text, and voice-to-face to improve their communication skills. The virtual humans will also exhibit motion-captured vivid movements, pupil movements, a wide range of facial expressions, and hairs on the skin. Last month, at a town hall, Krafton CEO CH Kim had said the company will actively leverage new technologies to offer unique experiences to gamers and creators. "We are geared up for realising an interactive virtual world (Metaverse) in stages and will continue to introduce more advanced versions of virtual humans and content based on the belief in the infinite scalability of such technologies," Shin Seok-jin, creative director at Krafton said in a statement. Hyperrealism is an old art concept that has inspired artists to create sculptures and paintings that give the illusion of being real. In the present day, it has struck a chord with game developers and animators who now have access to the tools to make digital characters look like real people.

Researchers may have developed a new tool that uses machine learning to better predict health outcomes for hospitalized Covid patients, and help physicians make more informed treatment decisions. A German research team from Charity-University Medicine in Berlin – one of the country's largest university hospitals – developed an Artificial Intelligence tool that can estimate how well an infected person will fare based off of a blood sample. The levels of fourteen proteins found in a person's blood can indicate whether a person who suffers a severe enough hospitalization will survive or die from the virus, and the tool developed by researchers can accurately asses their risk. In times of crisis, where resources are especially scarce, the tool can help determine what patients require the most intensive care to survive, and who is more fit to fight off the virus themselves. Using blood samples from Covid patients, a German research team has found that levels of 14 proteins can help determine whether a person survives the virus.