Though Kun Gao ’04 and George Ng ’03 went to UC Berkeley at the same time, they didn’t meet until years later when a mutual friend and fellow alum introduced them. That Cal connection has repeatedly played a big role in the entrepreneurs’ careers, as they have founded multiple companies with others linked to Berkeley.
Their latest joint venture, GGWP, is a startup that provides AI-powered moderation and community management tools for games and other online platforms. As gaming and social media platforms grow, they quickly become overwhelmed with user-generated content. GGWP helps companies manage this firehose of information so their communities stay engaged. Their company is backed by other notable founders, including — again — several fellow Cal grads.
Ng earned his bachelor’s degree in economics, later returning to UC Berkeley to teach a course in machine learning. Gao graduated with dual degrees in electrical engineering and computer sciences (EECS) and applied mathematics. They spoke with UC Berkeley writer Alexander Rony about how their alma mater impacted their impressive careers.
Kun Gao: George and I didn’t know each other until after college, when we were essentially neighbors. We were connected by a friend — our co-founder, Ling Xiao, who was in EECS the same year as me. Coincidentally, George and I both exited our previous companies around the same time — George with Cyence, myself with Crunchyroll.
George Ng: I was looking for other entrepreneurs to connect with. I wanted someone’s perspective other than our investors, and I didn’t have a ton of people in my immediate circle who had that visibility. It was refreshing to talk to other people who had started companies in Silicon Valley and taken venture funding. We reconnected through those circles, and we were trading notes on different companies in the space and areas we were investing in.
Kun Gao: When COVID hit, we were stuck at home, hanging out and playing games together online. We realized that gaming was as toxic, if not more so, as we remembered in college, and we said, “Why isn’t anyone doing anything about this?”
George Ng: Kun, our co-founders, Ling and Dennis Fong, and I — we all have young kids. I was looking at our kids being more involved in interactive experiences online and seeing how scary it was.
Kun Gao: We ended up connecting with some of our friends who publish games, and they told us that it’s very challenging for them to look at all the large datasets to take action in real time. The systems they built were quite bespoke. There really wasn’t a platform that publishers can take off the shelf to scale to their needs.
Game publishing and live operations have changed dramatically in the last 20 years. Now, multiplayer games launch and grow to tens of millions of players within weeks, and then the game has to figure out how to address billions of messages and make sure it’s a safe environment for all players. So, with those challenges in mind, we set out to build GGWP, which stands for “Good Game, Well Played.”
George Ng: This has evolved quite a bit since we started our company. Historically, U.S. law gave online platforms broad protection from being treated as the publisher of user-generated content. That protection helped the internet grow, but it was never absolute, and expectations have changed. Large platforms may not be able to review every piece of content, but they are increasingly expected to identify and address serious harms. Regulations such as the Digital Services Act in Europe impose stronger obligations around illegal content and the protection of minors.
You can play pickup basketball at RSF, and everyone’s a college student, but matchmaking online is based on server location and speed, so you’ll have a 30-year-old grouped with a 12-year-old. If you allow them to talk, sometimes there’s great mentorship, but other times, it gets hostile very quickly, and they’re crossing the line. Especially during COVID, people were leaning toward games even more as an escape, and the last thing you want from a mental health standpoint is to have to deal with these types of issues.
Beyond safety and legality, moderation keeps people engaged. There are so many options out there, and people are disengaging because other users are toxic or inappropriate or not fun to play against.
George Ng: Celeste is a great academic researcher. She has a lot of insights. Celeste deeply understands how younger audiences respond to different situations.
For example, she provided valuable perspective on what was appropriate for voice moderation. It’s not so easy to implement a single rule across the board. You could say that someone yelling sounds aggressive. Is that creating a cultural bias? You’re potentially penalizing kids, who tend to be more excitable. That’s where you have to find some balance.
George Ng: Generative AI increases both the volume and variety of content platforms need to moderate. At that scale, user reporting alone is not enough; moderation has to become more proactive.
Publishers may also introduce generative AI characters that are less constrained and can produce content that violates policy. More broadly, creator platforms are letting users generate and share more text, images, audio, and video. That expands the moderation surface and creates additional abuse and authenticity risks, including deepfakes.
George Ng: Cal’s greatest strength is its students. Being on the other side as a Ph.D. student and teaching at a few places as well, you see the strength, quality, and depth of Cal students. I have a much greater appreciation and understanding of it, but as a student, Cal really forced you to meet other colleagues, brainstorm when there are challenging problems, and work through it with people. That was such a big part of the Cal experience.
Kun Gao: I would definitely echo what you’re saying about the students. Since Cal, I have founded five companies, and every single founding team has included someone from Cal, usually in engineering or L&S.
On the technical side, the curriculum is very foundational, rigorous, and strong. Even though we’re more connected to the management side these days, that foundational education and the way we think, analyze, and make decisions is still very much the same. From my perspective, it’s a very logic-driven approach to decision-making, and that’s certainly helped me in the companies that I’ve founded.
George Ng: I enjoyed my experience and want to give back to the school where possible. My wife, Tam Pham, is also an alum; I met her there.
I actually gave a commencement speech for the second time a few weeks ago. It was the first time I brought my kids on campus, so that was cool. My parents still live in San Francisco — we’re from the Bay Area — so I grew up wanting to be associated with Cal.
Kun Gao: My wife is an alum as well. We actually got married on campus at the Faculty Club.
George Ng: I’ve been to three weddings at the Faculty Club!
Kun Gao: There’s actually an official Berkeley chapter in Hong Kong. We have our own WhatsApp group, we’ll have dinners, and Berkeley faculty visit us. The Berkeley tentacles are everywhere.