Yoo Young-sang, SKT CEO, "Restructuring Growth Strategy Centered on AI"

SK Tech Summit 2023 Held

"SK Group is not merely responding to new changes but is reorganizing its growth strategy centered on AI. SK will proactively pioneer the future."

Yoo Young-sang, CEO of SK Telecom and chairman of the SK Group ICT Committee, emphasized rapid response to changes brought by AI at the 'SK Tech Summit 2023' held on the 16th at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

Yu Young-sang, Chairman of SK Group ICT Committee, is delivering the opening speech at the SK Tech Summit on the 16th.
[Photo by SKT]

The SK Tech Summit is SK Group's comprehensive technology exhibition held under the theme "AI Everywhere for a better future." The event venue was moved from the former Walkerhill Hotel to COEX and expanded into a global event. A record-breaking 9,600 participants registered in advance.

CEO Yoo stated, "The industry expects that by 2026, over 80% of all companies will utilize AI, and the global generative AI market is predicted to grow tenfold over the next five years to exceed $59 billion." He added, "Although there are concerns about AI, just as with the internet and mobile, securing AI technology will be more of an opportunity than a crisis." He also said, "Through this event, we will showcase SK Group's AI technology and vision as well as the AI future we will create together with global partners," and declared, "We will make this the inaugural year of the global SK Tech Summit."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Emphasizing comprehensive collaboration, he announced plans to strengthen synergy through technological cooperation among member companies via the SK Group ICT Committee and partnerships with big tech companies such as Anthropic, Google, AWS, as well as the K-AI Alliance.

Following this, Jung Seok-geun, head of SKT’s Global & AI Tech Business Division, explained SKT’s AI technology development and evolution direction. Global partners also participated. Jared Kaplan, CSO of Anthropic, co-founder and developer of GPT-3, presented on collaboration directions with SKT, Amazon, and Google. Slavic Dimitrovich, Global Lead of AI/ML Specialized Solutions Architecture at AWS, and Warren Buckley, Vice President of Google, introduced the future vision, impact, and application cases of generative AI. An Ik-jin, CEO of Moloco and representative of the K-AI Alliance, spoke about AI innovation triggered by generative AI. The presentations sparked lively questions regarding the safety, utilization methods, and future development directions of generative AI.

The core theme of this event was AI, accounting for over 60% of the exhibitions and presentations. Ryu Soo-jung, CEO of Sapeon, unveiled the next-generation AI semiconductor X330, which boasts twice the computational performance and 1.3 times better power efficiency compared to competitors' latest models. SKT introduced innovative AI use cases such as the AI personal assistants 'A.Dot' and 'A.DotX' large language models (LLM). SK Hynix exhibited the HBM3, an optimal memory solution for implementing AI, GPUs, and supercomputers. SK㈜ C&C showcased generative AI, cloud, digital ESG, and net-zero solutions and services, while SK Broadband demonstrated AI Korean subtitle technology applied to media services. Various exhibitions also attracted attention. SKT set up differentiated AI experience corners connected to daily life, including A.Dot Sleep and A.Dot TV. Additionally, together with SK Enmove, they introduced 'immersion cooling' technology that reduces AI server power consumption by 37% using special cooling oil.