Kim Il-du Resigns as CEO of Kakao Brain
Frequent Leadership Changes Lead to Decline in Development Staff
Kim Il-du, co-CEO of Kakao Brain who led the development of 'KoGPT,' has resigned. It is reported that some developers affiliated with Kakao Brain are also leaving the company along with CEO Kim, raising concerns that frequent leadership changes and business restructuring are leading to talent attrition.
According to the IT industry on the 21st, CEO Kim Il-du left the company on the 19th. Kim was a key figure responsible for Kakao's artificial intelligence (AI) development. After joining Kakao in 2012, he served as the head of the deep learning algorithm research team at Kakao Brain and became the CEO of Kakao Brain in 2021. He led the development of Kakao's AI model KoGPT.
Industry insiders interpret Kim's resignation as a result of frequent changes in corporate strategy. Over the past three years, the CEO has changed five times, and with each leadership restructuring, there have been continuous significant and minor changes. In particular, it is analyzed that autonomy among affiliates has weakened as the management policy shifted to be led by the headquarters. In the case of Kakao Brain, the leadership structure changed from a sole CEO system under Kim Il-du in June last year to a co-CEO system with Kim Il-du and Kim Byung-hak. This was to consolidate AI model development and commercialization capabilities within Kakao Brain. However, this year, the structure was reorganized to be headquarters-centered. Kakao absorbed Kakao Brain by taking over its major businesses. Afterwards, the company was divided into 'Kanana Alpha,' focused on AI model development, and 'Kanana X,' focused on AI services. A company official said regarding this, "We understand that CEO Kim resigned to start his own business."
There is a noticeable trend of core talent leaving Kakao. In April, Senior Vice President Kwon Mi-jin, who led the Open Link business, and key personnel from that division left Kakao. When the Open Link organization was dismantled during the restructuring, developers including Vice President Kwon joined Eyes Entertainment, founded by former Kakao CEO Nam Goong-hoon. Last year, Kim Kwang-seop, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Kakao Brain, left the company to start an AI startup. He developed KoGPT and the image generation AI 'Karlo' together with CEO Kim.
There are also cases where the main business changes. The Open Link business is a representative example. In 2022, former Kakao CEO Nam Goong-hoon positioned Open Link as a future growth engine after his inauguration. The ambition was to combine Open Chat with AI, metaverse, and expand overseas. However, after former CEO Nam stepped down, the momentum weakened.
Frequent changes are causing significant internal fatigue and increasing skepticism about mid- to long-term growth strategies. An industry insider expressed concern, saying, "Although personnel movement is frequent in the IT industry, if core developers or C-level executives leave, competitiveness can be weakened."
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