South Korea’s SK Telecom is planning to this year fully launch its own artificial intelligence chatbot, which an executive of the company said will offer a lot more than the booming ChatGPT.
During the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, SKT vice president Eric Davis told CNBC that the company launched a beta version of the chatbot “A.” — pronounced “A dot” — in South Korea in May last year.
A. is reportedly based on generative AI, which is the same technology behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
“It’s like you’re chatting with a friend, where you’re solving issues that you encounter in your daily life,” Davis told CNBC Wednesday.
Davis, who leads the AI project, reportedly said that SKT has been working on A. for a year and a half. The chatbot is built on large language models, which are AI trained on huge amounts of data to be able to chat in natural language.
While its technology is the same as that of ChatGPT, Davis argued that their final product is different. SKT will reportedly integrate various services it owns, including music streaming, e-commerce and payment apps, into the chatbot.
“So, largely, the super app is the end picture there. Download our app, and we’ll do basically everything you want us to do and more,” Davis told CNBC.
“ChatGPT is great. You know, it answers your questions, or it provides a summary. But it doesn’t do any things we did in A.,” he added. “It doesn’t connect you with services or out, it doesn’t have any personalization, we make a conscious effort to learn about our users.”
In November last year, SKT announced its goal to become an “AI company” by combining AI with a “wide range of connectivity technologies realized based on telecommunications.”
According to SKT CEO Ryu Young-sang, the company will focus on developing attractive features and content to draw in more customers for the A. service.
The company will also reportedly continue to secure key competencies by making investments in companies with AI technologies or character/content-related capabilities.
For now, A. is only available in Korean. However, SKT is reportedly in the early stages of exploring an international launch for the service.
“We’ve been talking to people in Europe, of course in Southeast Asia, local people that know the markets and know sort of what’s going to sell. So we’ve been having talks, but again, nothing’s really finalized,” Davis said, per CNBC.
SK Telecom’s booth at the MWC reportedly centered on AI. It showcased a total of 10 AI technologies and services, including A.; AI chip Sapeon; Vision AI that is applied to robotics, security, media and health care; LITMUS AI service for smart cities and transportation; and Excalibur, a veterinary AI service that helps diagnose X-rays on animals, according to the Korea Times.
A technician explains to visitors the Network 5G operation at the SK Telecom’s stand at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on February 22, 2016, on the first day of the world’s biggest mobile fair that runs to February 25. 5G technology, a main subject of the Mobile World Congress, should increase the internet speed, but mostly, arrange cohabitation between the smartphone and millions of connected objects such as refrigerators, cars or houses. The Mobile World Congress is a major event for Barcelona, earning the city some 436 million euros ($482 million) last year. / AFP / LLUIS GENE (Photo credit should read LLUIS GENE/AFP/Getty Images)LLUIS GENE / Staff
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