A video game company made a bot the CEO, and its stock climbed

• NetDragon Websoft announced last year it had appointed a bot as the CEO of its flagship subsidiary.
• The firm’s stock has risen in recent months, outpacing the Hong Kong market.
• It said the bot will increase efficiency and make key decisions for the gaming company.

Even before AI chatbot ChatGPT made headlines late last year, a video game company said it had already made a bot its CEO.

In August, the Chinese gaming company NetDragon Websoft announced it had appointed an “AI-powered virtual humanoid robot” named Tang Yu as the chief executive of its subsidiary, Fujian NetDragon Websoft.

NetDragon stock has since outperformed the Hang Seng Index, which tracks the biggest companies listed in Hong Kong, per The Hustle. 

The company’s shares have risen by 10% over the past six months, per Google Finance, and is worth about HK$9 billion ($1.1 billion).

At the time of the announcement, NetDragon said the bot would increase efficiency for decision-making and risk management, as well as help “ensure a fair and efficient workplace for all employees.”

“We believe AI is the future of corporate management, and our appointment of Ms. Tang Yu represents our commitment to truly embrace the use of AI to transform the way we operate our business, and ultimately drive our future strategic growth,” NetDragon chairman Dejian Liu said in a press release.

“We will continue to expand on our algorithms behind Tang Yu to build an open, interactive and highly transparent management model as we gradually transform to a metaverse-based working community.”

NetDragon, founded in 1999, developed several multi-player games including “Eudemons Online”, “Heroes Evolved” and “Conquer Online” as well as China’s first online gaming portal, 17173.com.  

While it may be the first company to appoint a bot as CEO, Alibaba founder Jack Ma predicted in 2017 that “a robot will likely be on the cover of Time magazine as the best CEO in 30 years,” CNN reported. 

Insider previously reported that there are several jobs that could eventually be replaced by artificial intelligence, from software engineering to journalist. Chief executive was not on the list, however. 

Read The Hustle’s full story on its website.