- SKT sets forth 'AI
Pyramid Strategy' to accelerate innovation centered around
three key areas: AI Infrastructure, AI Transformation (AIX) and
AI Service.
- AI Infrastructure, which consists of data
center, AI semiconductor, and multi
LLM, will serve as a technology platform that forms the
basis of SKT as an AI company.
- AI Transformation (AIX) of SKT's core
business areas such as mobile, broadband and enterprise, as well as
new business areas like mobility and healthcare will be pursued to
reach a new level of productivity and customer experience.
- In the area of AI Service, SKT announces the official
launch of 'A.' and plans to build a globally competitive personal
AI assistant service by leveraging its telco and AI
assets.
- SKT will strengthen
its own AI capabilities and collaborate with diverse global players
to expand its presence in the global AI market.
- By 2028, SKT will
triple the proportion of its AI-related investments and become a
global AI company with revenue of KRW 25
trillion.
SEOUL,
South Korea, Sept. 25,
2023 /PRNewswire/ -- SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM, "SKT")
today announced its ambition to become a global AI company by
strengthening its own AI competitiveness and cooperating with
partners throughout the globe.
SKT's CEO Ryu Young-sang unveiled
the new 'AI Pyramid Strategy,' which aims to innovate
industry, society, and life centered around three key areas
including AI Infrastructure, AI Transformation (AIX) and AI
Service.
Under this new strategy, CEO Ryu said that the company
expects the proportion of AI-related investment to approximately
triple from 12% over the past five years (2019-2023) to 33%
(2024-2028) over the next five years.
Located at the bottom of the AI Pyramid, AI Infrastructure is
an area where SKT's technological capabilities are
concentrated. The area consists of AI data centers, AI
semiconductors, and
multi LLM.
With the growth of the AI market, the shortage of data centers
is intensifying, and new social problems such as excessive use of
power and rapid increase of CO2 emissions are emerging.
Against this backdrop, SKT plans to introduce energy-saving
solutions like immersion cooling system and hydrogen fuel cells,
and expand into the AI hosting business that generates higher
margins by bundling these energy-saving solutions with Sapeon's
neural processing unit (NPU) and SK Hynix's high bandwidth memory
(HBM).
Based on differentiated energy solutions and AI hosting
business, the company will expand its data center business to the
global market. It explained that, by leveraging its data
center operation capabilities and strong relationships with global
cloud service providers, it will be able to successfully create new
opportunities globally. It also plans to almost double its data
center capacity by 2030.
Sapeon, an AI semiconductor company established by SKT, will
launch a next-generation inference AI chip 'X330' at the end of
this year. The X330 has approximately twice the
computational performance and 1.3 times the power efficiency
compared to the latest inference chips on the market. Sapeon will
also cooperate with diverse companies to secure competitiveness in
software platform.
SKT today announced that it
has branded its AI technology as 'A.X' and named its large language
model 'A.X LLM'.
The company is pursuing a multi-LLM strategy, under which it
takes a two-track approach to secure diverse LLM lineup as well as
an overall platform that encompasses the LLMs. It is advancing
its own LLM based on high-quality data accumulated over decades.
Simultaneously, SKT is collaborating with a diverse range of
partners, including Anthropic, OpenAI, and Konan Technology, to
develop tailored LLM and related technologies specifically for the
telco industry.
First, in terms of strengthening its own capabilities, SKT plans
to advance its LLMs into telco-specific LLMs by leveraging its
abundant telecommunications-related data.
In addition, the company will continue to secure more
sophisticated LLM technologies based on its supercomputer Titan,
which ranked no. 47 on the Top 500 list of the world's most
powerful supercomputers; high understanding of the Korean language
trained with the world's largest Korean language data; intelligence
platform where multi LLMs and AI technologies customized for
diverse telco use cases can be utilized; and multimodal LLM
technologies that support communication via not only text but also
voice, video, and so on.
SKT invested USD 100 million in
Anthropic last month, and is working together with Anthropic to
develop LLM customized to telcos. The company is also cooperating
with Open AI, which includes co-hosting of an AI hackathon in
Korea. SKT also invested KRW 22.4
billion in Konan Technology last year, and the two companies
are collaborating to enter into the enterprise market with LLMs
customized to corporate customers.
In the area of AIX, which is located in the middle layer of the
AI Pyramid, SKT will innovate its existing core business areas
like mobile, broadband and enterprise with AI, while at the same
time expanding into new business areas such as mobility, AI
healthcare, media and advertising technology.
In the mobile business, the company stated that AI holds the
power to significantly improve both profitability and customer
experience. AI can not only be used to acquire/retain customers and
provide better customer support via AI Contact Centers (AICC), but
also be applied to the network infrastructure to enhance the
efficiency in network deployment and operation. The company expects
that, in the mid-to long-term, AI will help reduce 20 to 30% of
costs compared to the current level.
SKT will also evolve SK Broadband's Btv service into AI TV to
deliver a new level of convenience and value. For instance, 'AI
Curation' will identify the user and show personalized TV; and 'AI
Home' will allow users to enjoy various media services by
conversing with an AI agent.
In addition, by combining multi LLM with existing AI solutions
like Vision AI, Language AI and Big Data AI, the company to expand
its AICC business to financial institutions and data platform
business to manufacturers. For its generative AI business, it will
build customized services for public and financial institutions
with strong needs for security and specialized services, while
providing SaaS bundles to general corporate customers.
Furthermore, SKT will continue to pursue AI innovation and
expand the overall AI ecosystem by growing its new business areas
such as urban air mobility (UAM) and AI-based healthcare services
like X Caliber. The company will also promote mergers and
acquisitions in areas including media and advertising technology to
create new business opportunities through AI transformation.
SKT today announced the official launch of 'A.', the world's
first Korean LLM service released in the beta version in
2022.
The company said that 'A.' will evolve into a personal AI
assistant service by innovating customers' communication experience
and fully assisting their everyday lives via seamless connection to
a wide variety of AI services.
SKT plans to add an AI phone service, which enables new
connections through communication innovation that can only be
achieved by a telco. The AI phone will provide a variety of AI
services and mobile experiences based on understanding and
reasoning of call context.
For instance, it will recommend people to call based on call
history and analyze the content exchanged during a call with AI to
provide a call summary. At the same time, it connects users to
necessary tasks, such as registering the schedule made during a
call to the calendar or sharing addresses. More features such as
real-time interpretation during calls will also be added going
forward.
In terms of integrating AI into all aspects of daily life, SKT
will start by offering an AI sleep management solution named 'A.
sleep' and an AI music service this month.
'A. sleep' is developed by combining sleep management solution
startup Asleep's sleep solution and SKT's AI. It evaluates sleep
quality by analyzing user's sleep patterns. No separate device is
needed. It helps users start their day in the best possible
condition by determining the ideal wake-up time depending on their
sleep status and quality.
The AI music service will not only allow users to edit their
playlist by simply talking to A., but also automatically recommend
music that matches their tastes based on its generative customer
prediction model.
Going forward, SKT plans to leverage its AI service-related
experience and knowhow accumulated in the Korean market to
develop a powerful personal AI assistant service that can
attract global customers.
The company expects that its partnerships with diverse global
players – including the Global Telco AI Alliance – will help
accelerate its progress. SKT plans to expand its presence in the
global AI service market by launching personal AI assistant
services simultaneously in many countries across the world by
working closely with telcos for localization and advancement of
these services.
- Two-track approach – self strengthening and cooperation – to
accelerate growth to become a global AI company
SKT aims to leap into a global AI company that leads the AI
ecosystem by strengthening its own competitiveness in areas
including the personal AI assistant 'A.', 'A.X LLM', AI
semiconductor and AI data centers, while working together with
diverse partners throughout the globe.
"Destructive innovation triggered by generative AI is already
creating new value in all areas of industry, society, and life.
With our AI Pyramid Strategy, we will make accelerated moves to
strengthen our own capabilities and cooperate with diverse
partners, and expand our AI-related resource investments. Through
these efforts, we aim to become a global AI company that benefits
customers, increases industry productivity, and solves social
problems with innovative technologies and services," said
Ryu Young-sang, CEO of
SKT.
About SK Telecom
SK Telecom has been leading the growth of the mobile industry
since 1984. Now, it is taking customer experience to new heights by
extending beyond connectivity. By placing AI at the core of its
business, SK Telecom is rapidly transforming into an AI company. It
is focusing on driving innovations in areas of telecommunications,
media, AI, metaverse, cloud and connected intelligence to deliver
greater value for both individuals and enterprises.
For more information, please visit our LinkedIn page
www.linkedin.com/company/sk-telecom.
CONTACT: skt_press@sk.com
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SOURCE SK Telecom