Has Xing Jun's departure from Mihoyo impacted the company's AI direction?

On July 23rd, according to Jinghe News, Xing Jun, former head of Mihoyo's Metaverse Research Center and AI division, officially resigned in February this year and set up Shanghai Bantu Technology on his own.

Qichacha information shows that Xing Jun's new company, Shanghai Bantu Technology, focuses on 3D virtual humans, with partner Duan Jinjiu, a former co-founder of Wave Particle Technology before it was acquired by ByteDance. Currently, the core team members come from companies such as Mihoyo, Papergames, and ByteDance.

Public records show that Xing Jun completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Science and Technology of China in 2012 and obtained his PhD from the University of Hong Kong four years later. The following year, he went to the University of Southern California (USC) to do postdoctoral research, focusing on exploring advanced fields. Upon his return, Xing Jun's first career choice was to join the renowned game development company Mihoyo as a Lead Research Scientist.

Currently, AI has been officially applied to Mihoyo's publishing process. Just three days after the release of the game "Honkai: Star Rail," Mihoyo launched its innovative AI generation tool, "Endless March 7th," which converts various character images and stickers into the style of the game's iconic character "March 7th." Upon its release, "Endless March 7th" quickly swept across social media platforms, igniting heated discussions on Bilibili and Weibo, trending on hot search lists, and adding fuel to the popularity of "Honkai: Star Rail."

However, Mihoyo remains relatively restrained in its use of AI. Taking this year's new release "Zenless Zone Zero" as an example, Li Zhenyu made it clear that AI does not play a central role in the project. Instead, AI is seen more as an auxiliary tool, primarily used in programming to optimize production processes and enhance the efficiency of the development team.

According to Li Zhenyu, the distinctive and unique artistic style presented in "Zenless Zone Zero" is the core element that sets the game apart from other works under Mihoyo, such as "Genshin Impact" and "Honkai: Star Rail." He emphasized that to ensure the uniqueness and originality of the game's visual presentation, AI will not be used to create artistic content. In contrast, the producer of "Honkai: Star Rail," David, advocates the application of AI in art and other aspects.

It can be said that AI has penetrated every aspect of Mihoyo's research and development, and its industrialization requires comprehensive planning by humans. Now that Xing Jun has resigned, it may impact Mihoyo's industrialization process and AI technology development in the future.