Guild Esports PLC (LSE:GILD, OTCQB:GULDF) has announced a research and development partnership with Gerford AI, an artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics company, to utilise AI technologies for the discovery and development of professional esports players.
Gerford AI is an Australian-based developer of AI, machine learning and computer vision technologies to improve athletic performance specialising in emerging sports, predominantly table tennis and swimming.
Gerford is partnering with Guild to leverage its technologies in gaming and establish a first-mover advantage for both companies in esports.
The partnership will focus on the development of AI-driven technologies to provide accurate, time-saving data analysis, track individual athletes' performances and optimise pre-game preparation.
Additionally, Guild and Gerford's R&D partnership will explore the development of an esports-focused online censoring tool, designed to address anti-social behaviour online more effectively by automatically filtering harmful language in-game.
Guild anticipates that the resulting innovations from R&D can be leveraged to create revenue-generation opportunities for the company.
In a statement, Jasmine Skee, chief executive of Guild Esports, commented: "By partnering with Gerford, we'll be able to utilise their AI technologies to improve teams' performance, and give players greater protection online, ensuring they can focus on gaming in an abuse-free environment.
“These AI-driven solutions show great promise for Guild, and the entire esports industry."
Iggy Jovanovic, founder and chief executive of Gerford AI, added: "By partnering with Guild, we can leverage our proprietary technology in the esports space for the first time.
“We see great technological development opportunities by working with Guild's world-class athletes, working to optimise their preparation and improve coaches' access to data in real-time competitions. We're looking forward to working with Guild as we look to create a new dawn for esports coaching."