[AI Revolution]⑨ "Making AI for Everyone"... Kakao

Kim Beom-su, Head of Kakao Future Initiative Center.

A world where everything in daily life?search, translation, conversation, shopping?becomes possible with just KakaoTalk is coming. KakaoTalk, combined with artificial intelligence (AI), is moving beyond its 48 million domestic users to transform the daily lives of global users as well.

"Kakao will reinvent itself as an AI technology specialist company"

Since establishing its AI research subsidiary Kakao Brain in 2017, Kakao has been fully committed to AI research. This is because founder Kim Beom-su, head of the Future Initiative Center, believes in the future of AI. Kim personally led Kakao Brain for about a year and a half to ensure that AI technology takes root throughout the Kakao community (subsidiaries).

At the time of Kakao Brain’s founding, Kim stated, “The level of global companies is quite high, but it is not beyond our reach. We will reinvent ourselves as an AI technology specialist company,” expressing his ambition for global expansion.

Since then, Kakao has elevated its AI capabilities to world-class levels in just five years. Kakao Brain and Kakao Enterprise, leading Kakao’s AI research, published a total of 43 papers last year at the world’s top AI conferences. They also garnered global attention by ranking first in major AI competitions.

Investment has also greatly expanded. Research and development expenses increased from 535.4 billion KRW in 2020 to 764.5 billion KRW in 2021. Last year, R&D expenses reached 1.0213 trillion KRW. A significant portion of these expenses is used for AI-related research, including the advancement of the massive language model ‘KoGPT.’

Kakao is also sincerely committed to nurturing AI talent. In 2024, it plans to open its AI campus to young people, nurturing a total of 6,000 talents over three years, with 2,000 annually. It aims to support the founding of 100 startups and establish a support system allowing companies to hire up to 40 people each. To this end, it will invest a total of 500 billion KRW. Kakao Ventures, Kakao’s venture capital arm, has invested in 35 AI startups.

KakaoTalk breaks language barriers and even draws pictures

Kakao announced plans to launch services using the Korean language-specialized AI model KoGPT within the year. Kakao’s vision for the future can be glimpsed in ‘ddmm (Dadaum),’ a beta service introduced by Kakao Brain.

Dadaum is a service combining KoGPT and the image generation model ‘Karlo,’ which was available on KakaoTalk from the 19th to the 20th. Its features include ▲text-to-image conversion ▲recommendations (restaurants, shopping information, content, travel destinations, etc.) ▲complex information search ▲language learning ▲translation, all accessible through KakaoTalk.

Dadaum uses an AI model specialized for Korean, meaning the service is optimized for understanding Korean context. When combined with Kakao’s existing services such as shopping, travel, and maps, it is expected to have significant impact.

For example, if you ask Dadaum, “Recommend a popular blender around 100,000 KRW these days,” it will immediately display a list of blenders in the KakaoTalk chat window. It can also be used in various ways during conversations with friends. Linked with the map application, commands like “Send directions from Asia Economy in Jung-gu, Seoul to COEX in Samseong-dong to Suhyeon” are possible.

The drawing feature also draws attention. AI artist Karlo understands sentences and creates matching images. This can be used for users’ profile pictures, backgrounds, and more on KakaoTalk. The Karlo-based image generation and sharing platform ‘Be Discover’ already offers a service where uploading a single photo results in AI generating 100 different profile images based on the image and user information. This service is popular overseas as well.

Kakao Brain plans to reorganize Dadaum’s beta service, which was suspended within a day due to unexpected user influx, and reintroduce it as early as next month.

Hong Eun-taek, CEO of Kakao, said at this month’s regular shareholders’ meeting, “We want to create new opportunities by focusing on sharp vertical AI services (specialized services) in areas where we excel,” adding, “Kakao will focus more on cost competitiveness and quickly introduce AI-based vertical services within the year.”