ESTsoft (CEO Chung Sang-won), a company specializing in AI services, announced on the 16th that it has launched an 'AI TOEIC Speaking instructor' capable of speaking Korean and English, together with foreign language education company YBM (CEO Huh Moon-ho).
The AI TOEIC Speaking instructor is a clone of Park Hye-won, a leading TOEIC instructor at YBM Language Institute, and is the Korean education industry's first bilingual AI virtual human.
With a bilingual AI virtual human creating a digital learning environment optimized for foreign language study, both companies expect the technology to support high-quality education services and, beyond that, help maximize learning outcomes.
The AI TOEIC Speaking instructor was created in ESTsoft's 'AI Studio Perso'. The service, which supports everything from AI virtual human production to operation, gives users a distinctive experience through ▲high lip-sync accuracy, ▲natural upper-body movement and ▲both front and side video.
'AI Clone' technology was used to produce the AI TOEIC instructor — technology ESTsoft developed in-house to clone an existing person as an AI virtual human. AI Clone carries advanced voice generation (TTS) and face generation (STF) AI, so it reproduces not only Park Hye-won's appearance but her distinctive manner of speaking and gestures in both Korean and English.
The video and audio data needed for production was captured in the studio ESTsoft built inside its headquarters to Korea's highest specifications, for highly advanced AI virtual humans. The studio can capture and extract high-quality refined data supporting up to 8K, the highest resolution currently available.
The AI TOEIC instructor makes her first appearance this month, on 'VTKL', a new AI human online class from YBM. The subject is TOEIC Speaking, with the AI TOEIC Speaking instructor delivering content prepared by Park Hye-won, who has the largest number of TOEIC students in the country at YBM.
YBM CEO Huh Moon-ho said: "We are delighted to be able to introduce the Korean education industry's first bilingual AI TOEIC Speaking instructor, using ESTsoft's world-class AI virtual human technology," adding, "We will continue collaborating actively with ESTsoft across many fronts so YBM can keep offering an ever more advanced learning environment."
ESTsoft CEO Chung Sang-won said: "Providing an AI virtual human to YBM, a leading Korean education company, not merely to deliver information but to produce an education service — in a field relatively demanding about adopting technology — is a remarkable business achievement that proves the technology's usefulness," adding, "We will do our utmost to strengthen our partnership with YBM and introduce further innovative education services combining AI." He continued: "2023 will be the first year ESTsoft's high-quality AI virtual human services, ready for immediate use in the field, are delivered in earnest to markets at home and abroad."
The virtual human market ESTsoft is pursuing as a new AI business has enormous growth potential and is drawing worldwide attention. Global market research firm Emergen Research has forecast that the global virtual human market will grow to USD 527.58 billion (about KRW 700 trillion) by 2030.