KT Holds 'AI One Team Summit 2021' to Strengthen Industry-Academia-Research AI Collaboration

At the AI One Team Summit 2021 held on the 10th at the Sofitel Ambassador Hotel in Songpa-gu, Seoul, attendees are taking a commemorative photo. From the left: Cho Hyun-min, Vice President of Hanjin; Jung Il-moon, President of Korea Investment & Securities; Park Moon-seo, President of Dongwon Group; Kang Cheol-ho, President of Hyundai Heavy Industries Group Hyundai Robotics; Koo Hyun-mo, CEO of KT; Kwon Kwang-seok, President of Woori Bank; Park Il-pyeong, President of LG Electronics; Kim Woo-seung, President of Hanyang University; Park Jong-hyun, Vice President of ETRI.

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] On the afternoon of the 10th, KT announced on the 11th that it held the ‘AI One Team Summit 2021’ at the Sofitel Ambassador Hotel located in Songpa-gu, Seoul, together with 11 participating organizations of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) One Team.

The AI One Team is an industry-academia-research consortium launched last February with the goal of making South Korea the number one AI nation. A total of 11 organizations including KT, Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, LG Electronics, LG Uplus, Korea Investment & Securities, Dongwon Group, Woori Bank, Hanjin, KAIST, Hanyang University, and ETRI have come together to collaborate in areas such as joint AI research, AI ecosystem development, and AI talent cultivation.

At the ‘AI One Team Summit 2021’ held that day, the participating organizations shared the achievements made this year and announced the AI cooperation plans for 2022. They also discussed future directions for mutual cooperation to strengthen AI competitiveness and pledged to work together to make South Korea the number one AI nation.

At the summit, the AI One Team announced that over the past year it achieved results including ▲promotion of open R&D such as joint research on ultra-large AI models ▲creation of an AI ecosystem through startup open innovation and the Coringla AI Startup 100 program ▲joint development and introduction of the AI certification exam ‘AIFB (AI Fundamentals for Business)’ ▲establishment of industry-academia joint education courses ▲presentation of AI talent cultivation cooperation models such as the AI One Team Story.

The AI One Team plans to strengthen cooperation next year as well. ▲In the AI joint research area, participating organizations will collaborate to develop ultra-large AI models with over 200 billion parameters and apply them to various projects of the participating organizations. ▲In the AI ecosystem development area, the ‘Startup Open Innovation’ program will be reinforced, an AI startup expert council will be operated, and the role as a startup matching platform will be continuously maintained. ▲In the AI talent cultivation field, the AI One Team will promote the adoption of the jointly developed AI certification system ‘AIFB’ and expand AI departments linked to recruitment to jointly nurture practical AI talent.

Song Jae-ho, Vice President and Head of KT’s AI/DX Convergence Business Division, said, “AI has now established itself as a core technology that determines national competitiveness by leading industrial development or causing digital innovation through convergence with other industries,” and added, “The AI One Team will unite core AI capabilities such as infrastructure, talent, and startups to further enhance the national AI competitiveness.”