This is first known acquisition by Microsoft backed OpenAI. The financial details of the acquisition deal were not disclosed, as of yet.
The entire team of Global Illumination has joined OpenAI to work on OpenAI's core products including ChatGPT.
Founded in 2021, by Thomas Dimson, Taylor Gordon and Joey Flynn, Global Illumination is a company that has been leveraging AI to build creative tools, infrastructure, and digital experiences. The team previously designed and built products early on at Instagram and Facebook, and have also made significant contributions at YouTube, Google, Pixar, Riot Games, and other notable companies.
The New York-based startup was most recently working on Minecraft-like video-game called — Biomes, which is an open source sandbox MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) built for the Web using web technologies such as Next.js, Typescript, React and WebAssembly, and can be played from the browser.
An MMORPG is an internet-based computer game set in a virtual world, which can be played by many people at the same time, each of whom can interact with the others.
Compatible with MacOS, Windows, or Linux, Biomes run in the browser and has been developed to run smoothly on Chrome. Biomes can run on other browsers (e.g. Safari, Firefox, Edge, Arc), however other browsers are not officially supported.
Biomes is a sandbox MMORPG based in an open and fully destructible voxel world. Players build, craft, farm, fend off muckers, and take on quests.
Meanwhile, an AI startup, founded by former members of OpenAI, has recently received investment of $100 million from South Korea's largest telco firm SK Telecom.
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