KT CEO Kim Younger-shub speaks throughout a press convention at Novotel Ambassador Seoul Lodge in Jung District, Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap
Telecom firm expects $3.4 bil. in extra gross sales from partnership
By Nam Hyun-woo
KT will debut a Korea-specific synthetic intelligence (AI) mannequin inside the first half of subsequent yr, as a part of a partnership with Microsoft, the telecom firm’s CEO stated, Thursday, pledging that the collaboration is anticipated to generate 4.6 trillion gained ($3.4 billion) in gross sales for the following 5 years.
Kim Younger-shub, CEO of KT, stated the partnership with Microsoft will advance the corporate’s imaginative and prescient of changing into an AI-driven communication expertise (AICT) agency. He emphasised that this collaboration will finally assist the AI transformation of Korean corporations via KT’s AI and cloud providers.
“By leveraging the collaboration with Microsoft, KT will improve its AI and cloud capabilities, changing into a number one firm in offering the quickest and most safe, personalized AICT providers to company and particular person shoppers right here,” Kim stated throughout a press convention in Seoul.
Final month, KT and Microsoft signed a five-year partnership targeted on complete cooperation in AI and cloud providers. As a part of this collaboration, the 2 corporations agreed to co-develop Korea-specific AI providers by leveraging OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Microsoft’s Phi language mannequin.
Throughout the press convention, KT introduced that the Korea-specific AI service is ready to be developed by the second quarter of subsequent yr. Moreover, the telecom firm plans to launch industry-specific AI providers primarily based on Microsoft’s Phi-3.5 small language mannequin.
To assist these providers, KT has begun the method of coaching GPT-4o on Korean textbooks, encyclopedias, information articles, and literary works. This method goals to assemble numerous information within the fields of training, historical past, and tradition.
“We’re satisfied that this course of will enhance the event technique of Korea-tailored AI providers,” KT’s Chief Expertise Officer Oh Seung-phil stated. “Simply as KT laid the nationwide telecommunications infrastructure previously, the corporate now goals to determine the foundational AI and cloud networks to drive innovation throughout all industrial sectors.”
KT additionally stated it’s collaborating with Microsoft to develop cloud providers tailor-made for the general public and monetary sectors, contemplating Korea’s regulatory and safety atmosphere. The businesses plan to commercialize these providers within the first quarter of subsequent yr.
By the partnership, KT expects its AI transformation enterprise to generate a further 269 billion gained in revenues subsequent yr, peaking at 1.37 trillion gained by 2029. The corporate anticipates that the collaboration will yield as much as 4.6 trillion gained in extra gross sales over the following 5 years.
To assist this initiative, KT and Microsoft will make investments roughly 2.4 trillion gained. Half of this funding might be devoted to infrastructure, whereas the opposite half might be allotted for analysis and growth (R&D) and advertising and marketing, in accordance with KT Govt Vice President Jung Woo-jin.
Microsoft Korea CEO Cho Received-woo speaks throughout a press convention at Novotel Ambassador Seoul Lodge in Jung District, Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap
Jung stated the partnership may even allow the corporate to amass the newest AI processors for its information facilities.
“Microsoft would be the first consumer to be equipped with Nvidia’s newest H200 graphics processing unit (GPU), and KT is making ready to be the primary to deliver it to Korea,” Jung stated. “We’re additionally discussing the potential of increasing and advancing the partnership, relying on the demand and provide of GPUs.”
Microsoft Korea CEO Cho Received-woo stated the U.S. tech large acknowledges the potential of Korea-specific AI providers. He emphasised that an AI skilled inside Korea’s superior industrial atmosphere will function a basis for the corporate to increase into different markets.
“Though that is an AI-based partnership, it incorporates info and communication applied sciences throughout varied sectors by way of long-term analysis and growth, joint engineering and detailed enterprise and funding plans,” Cho stated.
