AI-driven interactive characters have come a long way in recent years, thanks to improved graphics, faster processors, and increased interest from the video game industry. Inworld has made notable contributions to this field with its Interactive Virtual Actor (IVA) technology, which allows animators to create realistic NPCs that can interact autonomously with their environment and other avatars.

Inworld, Inc., a developer of advanced NPC-generation software, announced today that it had closed $50 million in Series A funding led by Softbank China Venture Capital. Inworld's real-time NPC generation platform enables game developers to bring virtual characters to life with natural expressions and responses to players' actions and movements.

Inworld, a Disney-backed startup Inworld uses AI to create virtual characters for games, raising $50 million for their company.

They've been gathering interest due to their ability to design and deploy more lifelike characters who can interact more naturally in different worlds, such as video games and Metaverse. For example, most modern video games have NPCs with scripted responses.

Virtual characters with artificial intelligence, such as those from Inworld, would be able to answer questions dynamically, and they could talk about the local area or the larger world.

Generally, graphics have improved a lot in recent years but not interactions. To meet the lofty expectations of the metaverse, the possibility of NPCs holding conversations more naturally will significantly improve gameplay.

Thanks to its likely significance in the future of the virtual reality world and gaming market - which is already worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

Having stealthily left the previous year, Inworld had collected $70 million last year, and in March 2022, the company raised an additional $10 million in a strategic funding round.

Additionally, Inworld is featured on the latest Disney Accelerator cohort alongside Polygon, Flickplay, Red 6, Obsess, and immersive experience provider Lockerverse.

"I've long believed that interactions, memories, and connections formed in immersive worlds can become as real as those formed in real life. It's why I'm excited about being named a Disney Accelerator company,"

"Our platform for creating memorable, AI-powered characters will unlock new opportunities for creators in entertainment, gaming, the metaverse, and other digital realms who are ready to create memories like mine." wrote Inworld AI CEO Ilya Gelfenbeyn in a LinkedIn post about the accelerator.

This is good news for game developers as the newly launched beta system of the Inworld Studio is compatible with the most popular game engines, such as Unity and Unreal.