Home » Business » SKT and Samsung Enter Strategic Partnership to Revolutionize AI Communication

SKT and Samsung Enter Strategic Partnership to Revolutionize AI Communication

Have a 30-minute meeting immediately after opening.
Taewon Choi: “Let’s discuss more about communication-specific AI.”
Expected to combine Samsung AI phones with carrier AI
SKT establishes joint venture with 1.3 billion subscribers
Choi asks questions about the first released Galaxy Ring

“At our booth, we are discussing the ‘Global Telco Artificial Intelligence (AI) Alliance.’ “I have a little more to discuss about that, so it would be nice to meet you later.”

In response to SK Group Chairman Choi Tae-won’s suggestion, Noh Tae-moon, head of Samsung Electronics’ Mobile Experience (MX) division, readily responded, “I understand. “We will cooperate well,” he replied. The two companies laid the foundation for AI business cooperation at the world’s largest mobile communications exhibition, ‘Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2024’, which opened at the Pira Gran Via exhibition hall in Barcelona, ​​Spain on the 26th (local time).

SK Chairman Choi Tae-won (right) and Samsung Electronics MX Division Business Manager (President) Tae-moon Noh present Samsung at the Fira Gran Via exhibition hall in Barcelona, ​​Spain, on the 26th (local time) when the world’s largest mobile communications exhibition, ‘Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2024’, opened. They are looking around the electronics booth and talking. Joint photo reporting group

Chairman Choi presided over the ‘Global Telco AI Alliance Inaugural General Meeting’ at SK Telecom’s booth at 8:30 a.m. on this day, right before the opening of MWC, which brought together major telecommunications companies from around the world to promote Telco AI strategies, and then went straight to the Samsung Electronics booth across the street. I met with President Roh for about 30 minutes. Chairman Choi’s top interest was Samsung Electronics’ first AI phone, the Galaxy S24. After watching the Galaxy S24 perform a real-time call interpretation function on its own without an external connection, he asked in detail, “How much capacity is required (to implement this) and how many languages ​​are supported?” President Roh responded, “13 languages ​​are supported.” “One language pack (language collection) costs about 300 to 400 MB,” he said. Chairman Choi himself also revealed that he is using the Galaxy S24. After looking at other AI technologies such as Galaxy Ring, Galaxy Book, and Samsung Health, the two parted ways after promising cooperation on telco AI.

There are expectations that Chairman Choi’s actions will create an opportunity for SK Telecom’s ‘Telco AI’ and Samsung Electronics’ ‘AI Phone’ strategies to exert synergy. AI services specialized in communication require AI phones, high-performance smartphones, to support them well. Conversely, AI phones are ‘on-device (built-in) AI’ devices that do not require applications, but must be equipped with various AI services and content to create a richer ecosystem. This is because it can be popularized based on . An industry official said, “In the past, when the level of voice recognition technology was low, no special services were released, but as recognition rates improved, various services emerged, so the emergence of AI phones can be a new opportunity for AI companies.”

Prior to this, SK Telecom had gathered major telecommunication companies around the world into an alliance. The strategy is to jointly build a ‘Telco LLM’ specialized in telecommunications and create related services in response to general-purpose large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, which were dominated by big tech companies. A representative example is the AI ​​Contact Center (AICC), which replaces call centers. A company official said, “Telco LLM has a higher understanding of the telecommunication area than general-purpose LLM and can better understand user intentions.” “Once Telco LLM is developed, telecommunications companies around the world will be able to flexibly create AI agents (secretaries) to suit each country’s environment.” “We can create AI services,” he explained.

In order to pursue this plan, SK Telecom decided to establish a joint venture within the year with four major telecommunication companies around the world, including Deutsche Telekom, Singtel, E&, and Softbank. The plan is to develop the Global Telco AI Alliance, a collaborative organization launched with Deutsche Telekom, Singtel, and E&N in July last year. Yoo Young-sang, CEO of SK Telecom, said, “We will secure leadership in the global AI ecosystem based on the joint venture,” and added, “1.3 billion telecommunication subscribers around the world will enjoy new AI experiences through telecommunication company-specific LLM.”

SK Chairman Choi Tae-won (right) and Samsung Electronics MX Division Business Manager (President) Tae-moon Noh present Samsung at the Fira Gran Via exhibition hall in Barcelona, ​​Spain, on the 26th (local time) when the world’s largest mobile communications exhibition, ‘Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2024’, opened. They are looking around the electronics booth and talking. Barcelona = Reporter Yunsu Kim

The joint venture specifically plans to develop a multilingual LLM that supports various languages ​​around the world, starting with five languages: Korean, English, Japanese, German, and Arabic. A total of 1.3 billion people across Asia, Europe, North America, Australia, and Africa, including 30 million at SK Telecom, 250 million at Deutsche Telekom, 40 million at Softbank, 770 million at Singtel, and 170 million at E&N. It is aimed at the data and demand of subscribers. SK Telecom also plans to continue to expand the size of the joint venture starting from this MWC. On this day, CEO Yoo called about 20 telecommunications companies around the world and proposed participation in the joint venture, demonstrated the LLM under development, and decided to hold such ‘Global Telco AI Roundtable (GTAR)’ meetings on a regular basis.

Samsung Electronics also chose AI phones as its exhibition theme and accelerated the promotion of related projects. Starting with the Galaxy S24, the company plans to spread the AI ​​phone feature ‘Galaxy AI’ to older products such as the Galaxy S23, Galaxy Z Flip 5, and Galaxy Z Fold 5 starting next month. Through this, the goal is to plant AI in 100 million mobile devices within the year and dominate the AI ​​phone market.

SK Chairman Choi Tae-won is examining the Galaxy Ring at the Samsung Electronics booth at the Fira Gran Via exhibition hall in Barcelona, ​​Spain, on the 26th (local time) when the world’s largest mobile communication exhibition, ‘Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2024’, opened. Barcelona = Reporter Yunsu Kim

Meanwhile, Chairman Choi also showed interest in the smart ring ‘Galaxy Ring’, which was unveiled for the first time at the Samsung Electronics booth on this day. When Chairman Choi asked, “Everyone has had a smart watch so far, is there a special reason for designing the new product this way?”, President Roh replied, “It is a ring because you can always wear it without any burden and monitor (health indicators) without missing anything. “I think the shape is optimal,” he said. The Galaxy Ring, which is shaped like a ring, has the advantage of being able to be worn all the time thanks to its light weight and low power consumption. A sensor that detects biological signals is installed on the inner surface that comes in contact with the finger, and is expected to measure various health indicators and support exercise and sleep management functions.

2024-02-26 10:45:40
#MWC #Choi #Taewon #Noh #Taemoon #Lets #cooperate #Telco #phone #synergy #expected

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