[AI Revolution]⑦ Supermassive AI, Integrating into Daily Life... SK Telecom

-Personalized AI A-dot
-Based on GPT-3 Korean-specialized version... Naturally like everyday conversation
-Applied 'Long-term Memory' technology as if recalling old memories

'SKT AI is everywhere.'

Yu Sang-young, President of SK Telecom, unveiled SKT's new branding campaign at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023 last month. It embodies the company's determination to completely transform its corporate structure into an ‘AI Company’ leading innovation through AI services and technology.

‘ChatGPT’ has allowed the general public to experience the power of large-scale AI. However, President Yu believes that the process of connecting country-specific specialized services with ChatGPT is still not refined enough. Therefore, SKT has planned to leverage its years of accumulated large-scale AI R&D capabilities to make large-scale AI truly a universal service.

Last May, SKT introduced the first large-scale AI service in Korea. This was the result of long-term investment and research in large-scale AI. In 2019, SKT developed KoBERT and began utilizing it in customer center chatbots. In April 2020, KoGPT-2 was developed to make chatbot conversations more natural. In October of the same year, SKT developed KoBART, which excels at producing high-quality summaries of news and documents, demonstrating its expertise in natural language understanding and processing.

In May last year, SKT released the Android open beta version of AI service A. Dot, equipped with a Korean-specialized version based on its self-developed GPT-3. SKT is a company that started AI development early and has been maturing its technology.

Last year, A. Dot significantly upgraded its services, becoming a digital mate in customers' daily lives with features such as ‘A.Routine’ that manages customers' daily routines, ‘A.tv’ which recommends channels based on viewing history and preferences, and ‘A.photo’ that automatically edits photos using AI.

SKT applied ‘long-term memory’ technology to A. Dot, allowing it to store important information from users’ past conversations in a separate memory and utilize it during conversations, much like how humans retrieve old memories from their brains.

A. Dot remembers various information about users, including their likes, dislikes, occupation, hobbies, MBTI type, and even pets. For example, if a user says to A. Dot, “I took the subway after a long time, but transferring was annoying,” A. Dot might respond, “You usually liked taking taxis,” recalling past conversations with the user. This is based on a Korean-specialized version of the large language model (GPT-3), enabling natural everyday conversations.

SKT plans to integrate large-scale AI models like ChatGPT, which have recently become a hot topic, into A. Dot. Currently, AI conversation services can be broadly categorized into ‘goal-oriented conversations’ focused on commands, ‘emotional conversations’ for casual chats like with a friend, and ‘knowledge conversations’ used to acquire information. SKT believes that linking conversation services with ChatGPT will enhance knowledge conversations by leveraging ChatGPT’s vast information.

Moreover, SKT is also making strides in the AI semiconductor field. Through its subsidiary Sapeon, SKT became the first domestic company to commercialize AI semiconductors.

In particular, the AI semiconductor chip ‘Sapeon X220’ released by Sapeon in November 2020 attracted attention by achieving processing speeds 2.3 times faster than Nvidia’s graphics processing unit (GPU) ‘A2’. Its power consumption is about 80% of other products.

This year, SKT plans to launch products such as the server semiconductor ‘X330’, ‘X340’ for autonomous driving and mobility, and ‘X350’ for smartphones and other portable devices.

In the future, SKT will collaborate with SK Hynix to enhance AI inference and learning performance and release the X430, which applies next-generation high-performance memory developed by SK Hynix.

President Yu said, "Through alliances with global telecom operators and AI tech companies, we will create locally specialized AI agents, advance the technology, and accelerate global expansion."