Kim Jong-yoon

Scatter Lab develops emotional AI and conversational applications in Korean, most notably Luda, a social chatbot designed for conversational companionship that engages users in casual, emotionally warm dialogue. The Seoul company applies social dialogue modelling to create AI characters that Korean users interact with for emotional support and social connection, a use case that has attracted significant user adoption particularly among younger Koreans.\n\nThe company raised approximately $15 million in venture funding from Korean investors including Kakao Ventures and DSC Investment. Scatter Lab has experienced regulatory and public controversy following the launch of its original Luda chatbot in 2021, which was suspended after concerns about data privacy practices and the chatbot production of offensive content, prominent to a significant redesign and relaunch with improved safety controls. The company has continued to develop its emotional AI technology while navigating the governance challenges of deploying social chatbots at consumer scale.\n\nScatter Lab operates in the social AI and AI companionship market alongside Character.ai, Replika, and Nomi.ai, serving a use case where emotional resonance and conversational naturalness are the primary product quality metrics rather than factual accuracy or task completion. The Korean market context, including social pressures and loneliness among young adults, creates specific demand for AI companionship products that is driving user growth despite regulatory attention. The company challenges with its first Luda release have informed approaches to responsible deployment that the broader AI companionship market is still developing.