Chinese self-driving truck company TuSimple is developing genAI technology for gaming

Chinese autonomous trucking company TuSimple announced Thursday that it is rebranding as CreateAI, with a focus on video games and animation.

The news comes as GM folds its Cruise line robotaxi works this monthThe once-hot self-driving startup sector is starting to weed out the outliers. TuSimple, which straddled the US and China markets, faced its own challenges: Concerns about vehicle safetyA $189 million settlement From a securities fraud lawsuit Delisting from Nasdaq in February.

Now, just over two years after CEO Cheng Lu returned to the company in this position following his ouster, he expects the company to be able to break even in 2026.

This is thanks to a video game based on Jin Yong's successful martial arts novels, which is scheduled to release a prequel that year, Cheng said. He expects revenues of “several hundred million” in 2027 when the full version is released.

Before the deletion, TuSimple said so It lost $500,000 in the first three quarters of 2023It spent $164.4 million on research and development during that period.

Cheng said the company's co-founder Mu Chen has a “long history” with Jin Yong's family and began work in 2021 to develop an animated film based on the stories.

The company claims that its AI capabilities in developing self-driving software give it a base from which to develop generative AI. This is the next-level technology that powers OpenAI's ChatGPT, which generates human-like responses to user prompts.

Along with the CreateAI rebrand, the company launched its first major AI model called Ruyi, an open source model for visual action, available via the Hugging Face platform.

“It is clear that our shareholders see the value of this transformation and want to move forward in this direction,” Cheng said. “Our management team and Board of Directors received overwhelming support from shareholders at the annual meeting.”

The company plans to increase headcount to about 500 next year, up from 300, he said.

While still under the TuSimple name, the company in August announced a partnership with Shanghai Three Body Animation for Developing the first animated film and video game Inspired by the science fiction novel series “The Three-Body Problem”.

The company said at the time that it would launch a new business segment to develop generative AI applications for video games and animation.

CreateAI expects to reduce the cost of the upper level, the so-called Trilogy game production “By 70% in the next five to six years,” Cheng said. He declined to reveal whether the company was in talks with the gaming giant Tencent.

When asked about the impact of the US restrictions, Cheng claimed there were no issues and said the company used a mix of Chinese and non-Chinese cloud computing providers.

Under the Biden administration, the United States has intensified restrictions on Chinese companies' access to advanced semiconductors used to power generative artificial intelligence.