Who is Kangwook Lee? KRAFTON appoints Chief AI Officer to boost game innovation and AI research

KRAFTON, Inc. announced the appointment of Kangwook Lee, President of KRAFTON AI, as Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer (CAIO), a newly created executive position charged with overseeing the company’s AI research and development activities.

The CAIO role aims to advance AI R&D and strengthen the medium-to-long-term innovation strategy, PTI reported, citing the company.

Who is Kangwook Lee?

Lee, a former Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, received his PhD from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Berkeley in 2016. He previously served as an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Lee has been conducting research in artificial intelligence fields such as deep learning and machine learning since 2022 and also serves as the Head of Artificial Intelligence at KRAFTON.

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He focused on redesigning KRAFTON’s AI research framework to boost the company’s innovation efforts; pioneered R&D in core AI areas such as machine learning (ML), language models (LM), natural language processing (NLP), reinforcement learning (RL), and multimodal models.

In 2025, Lee led a project at KRAFTON in partnership with NVIDIA to introduce CPCs (Common Playable Characters) and create new gaming possibilities by allowing real-time interaction between players and AI.

Lee has been leading major innovation initiatives within the proprietary AI core model project at KRAFTON since last year. He recently resigned from his tenure-track position at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to fully commit to KRAFTON’s AI research and development as well as its mid- and long-term innovation strategy. Focusing on advancing gaming AI research, Lee aims to expand KRAFTON’s technological capabilities.

Through Lee’s role, KRAFTON plans to further strengthen its gaming AI research and development framework and enhance its medium- and long-term business strategy.

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About KRAFTON

Founded in 2007, KRAFTON consists of 19 global creative studios, including PUBG STUDIOS, Striking Distance Studios, Unknown Worlds, Neon Giant, KRAFTON Montréal Studio, Bluehole Studio, RisingWings, 5minlab, Dreamotion, ReLU Games, Flyway Games, Tango Gameworks, inZOI Studio, JOFSOFT, Eleventh Hour Games, OmniCraft Labs, Olivetree. operates a network. Games, Loonshot Games and 9B STUDIO.

Each independent studio aims to attract more fans by expanding KRAFTON’s platforms and services.

The company is responsible for leading gaming IPs including PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS, PUBG MOBILE, PUBG: BLINDSPOT, inZOI, Subnautica, MIMESIS, Hi-Fi Rush, Dinkum, TERA, My Little Puppy and more.

In India, KRAFTON is responsible for leading mobile games such as Bullet Echo India, Road To Valor: Empires and CookieRun India, along with BATTLEGROUNDS MOBILE INDIA (BGMI), which has reached 250 million downloads. KRAFTON has invested over $200 million in various Indian startups focusing on interactive entertainment, gaming, E-sports and technology since 2021 and aims to strengthen India’s start-up scene, the company said.