Smart Zoi

Overview

Smart Zoi is an experimental AI feature that gives Zois independent decision-making. Instead of waiting for player direction or following simple scripts, a Smart Zoi thinks about what to do next based on its personality traits, recent experiences, relationships, and current needs. Developed in partnership with NVIDIA using their ACE (Avatar Cloud Engine) technology, inZOI was the first game to ship with AI-powered NPCs using what NVIDIA calls "Co-Playable Character" AI tech.

Technical Foundation

Smart Zoi runs a Mistral NeMo Minitron small language model (SLM) with 0.5 billion parameters entirely on-device. No cloud connection is required for the AI processing. NVIDIA's distillation methods compress a larger model's knowledge into this compact footprint, producing high-quality outputs at low latency. The model uses approximately 1 GB of VRAM.

The SLM processes information about the Zoi's current state, personality, emotions, skills, desired life, memories, and social context, then generates decisions about what the Zoi should do next. Every Zoi is composed of over 400 mental elements that feed into this process. The Zoi internally "asks questions" of the AI model, and the model's responses guide behavior and daily scheduling.

How to Enable Smart Zoi

Open the Options Menu, navigate to the Gameplay tab, and find the Experimental section. Toggle Smart Zoi on. You can apply it to individual characters, entire families, or all city residents. There is also an option to limit the number of active Smart Zoi instances to help with performance.

During gameplay at speeds below 5x, prompts appear near character profile icons allowing you to toggle Smart Zoi on or off for individual Zois without opening the settings menu.

Core Features

Inner Thoughts

With Smart Zoi activated, Zois generate detailed inner monologues when performing tasks or actions. These thoughts provide a window into the Zoi's reasoning and personality. Inner Thoughts may reveal a Zoi's reflection on their life, their specific thoughts on music playing nearby, their understanding of a book they are reading, or deeper feelings during a conversation.

A compassionate Zoi might spontaneously notice a hungry NPC and decide to purchase food for them. A curious Zoi reading a science book might develop thoughts about pursuing a technology career. These inner thoughts are not just flavor text; they feed directly into the Diary and Schedule systems.

Diary System

At the end of each day, when a Zoi is sufficiently tired and it is past 11 PM in-game, the Zoi writes a diary entry reflecting on their day. The diary combines input from Inner Thoughts and notable moments that occurred throughout the day. It provides a longer, more comprehensive analysis from the Zoi's perspective.

Discoveries and realizations can occur during the diary-writing process. A Zoi who had a particularly meaningful conversation might recognize a shift in their priorities. These diary insights are factored into the following day's schedule generation.

Smart Schedule

After a reflective diary session, the Zoi analyzes their thoughts, feelings, and events to generate a new schedule for the following day. Unlike the default autonomy system where Zois follow relatively predictable routines, Smart Schedule creates adaptive daily plans that change based on what actually happened.

A Zoi who discovered a new hobby through Inner Thoughts might schedule time for it tomorrow. A Zoi who had a fight with a friend might avoid social activities for a day. Changes in values or preferences from recent events are reflected in the schedule. Over time, Smart Schedule produces increasingly personalized daily routines that feel unique to each Zoi.

Zoi Pen

The Zoi Pen gives players a way to directly influence a Smart Zoi's thoughts and feelings through free-form text input. Think of it as planting an idea within the Zoi. The input influences their inner thoughts, diary reflections, and ultimately their decisions and schedule.

Input is currently limited to 100 words, with 20 words being the recommended length. Shorter, thematic prompts tend to produce better results than specific action commands. For example, writing "you feel suspicious that the world around you is a simulation" will cause the Zoi to examine their surroundings skeptically, question reality through book analysis, and develop existential thoughts over several days.

Example Zoi Pen prompts and their effects:

System Requirements

Smart Zoi is GPU-accelerated exclusively on NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs. The feature is not currently available on AMD or Intel GPUs. KRAFTON has stated it will be made available to all players who meet system requirements in the future.

Limitations

• The Diary, Inner Thoughts, and Smart Schedule features are disabled at 5x speed or higher. The AI model needs real-time processing to generate meaningful output.

• Smart Zoi is experimental and may produce unexpected or inconsistent behavior. It is not intended for precise micromanagement playstyles.

• Running Smart Zoi on multiple Zois simultaneously increases GPU load. Use the instance limiter in settings to manage performance.

• The feature requires an internet connection for initial setup but processes AI decisions entirely on-device afterward.