Chinese game publisher NetDragon with AI CEO rises in value

NetDragon Websoft, a Chinese video game company, made history when it appointed an AI-controlled bot as its CEO in August 2022.

The female-looking bot, named Tang Yu, was designed to support decision-making in the company’s day-to-day operations. In the six months since Tang Yu’s appointment, the AI programme has outperformed Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index, leading to a 10 per cent rise in NetDragon Websoft’s share price.

 

Netdragon Websoft CEO
Source: Netdragon

 

As a result, the company’s valuation rose to more than USD 1 billion. According to media reports, the company’s founder, Dejian Liu, is convinced that artificial intelligence (AI) is the future of corporate management. The appointment of Tang Yu as CEO would also underline the company’s commitment to using AI to transform its own business and drive strategic growth.

While NetDragon Websoft claims to be the first company in the world to hire an AI-powered bot to run its business, Alibaba CEO Jack Ma predicts that one day a robot will appear on the cover of Time magazine as the best CEO. News of Tang Yu’s success comes at a time when interest in generative AI technology is surging and several leading AI companies are launching new AI tools. OpenAI recently unveiled GPT-4, the successor to its popular ChatGPT software, which it describes as a “much more nuanced” version of its predecessor. GPT-4 has already proven itself capable of passing a range of exams, including the bar exam, the LSATS and SAT tests in reading and maths.

It is clear that AI technology is becoming more sophisticated and is making progress in various industries. However, it is questionable whether AI software is already suited to act as the CEO of a company. While Tang Yu’s success may be impressive, the limitations of AI must be considered. These include the fact that it cannot fully replicate human intuition, emotions and ethics. NetDragon Websoft is probably also constantly working on improving the algorithms of its own artificial CEO for this reason.

AI-driven CEOs will certainly not be the norm in the future. What is clear is that the use of AI technology will not stop at corporate governance and will continue to grow in many areas of working life.

As a game development company and publisher, NetDragon is known for free-to-play (F2P) and pay-to-play (P2P) games such as Eudemons Online, Heroes Evolved and Conquer Online. Since 2017, NetDragon has also owned JumpStart Games, the American developer studio behind NeoPets.