Samsung Electronics-SKT-Kakao develops’AI’ to overcome corona…The first joint product of the ICT Alliance

Input 2020.12.22 09:30 | Revision 2020.12.22 09:59

AI super-cooperation consensus at CES earlier this year… Discuss development tasks through regular workshops at the CTO level of three companies
Formation of’AI R&D Council’ for sustainable cooperation… Unveiled the first collaboration’AI over the pandemic’ early next year
AI predicts and analyzes corona risk areas and user behavior and automatically recommends social distancing

Samsung Electronics (005930), SK Telecom (017670), Kakao (035720)Will jointly develop an AI (artificial intelligence) service to overcome the Corona 19 pandemic and release it in the first half of next year. This is the first joint product of Samsung Electronics, SK Telecom, and Kakao ICT Alliance. The three companies formed an alliance for initial cooperation in the ICT field earlier this year. AI plans to provide personalized services such as predicting the risk of the user’s surroundings and future movement paths and warning them in advance.

Samsung Electronics, SK Telecom, and Kakao announced on the 22nd that they have decided to cooperate with the development of AI technology in the pandemic era. Through this AI alliance, the three companies will gather the core competencies of each company ▲Future AI technology development ▲A study on how to use AI to solve social difficulties ▲To expand the base of AI technology jointly.

In particular, considering that Corona 19 is a critical point of having a serious impact on the national economy and society, first of all, we decided to proceed with cooperation with a focus on early coping with the corona and developing AI for the public good.

To this end, the three companies formed the’AI R&D Council’. Each company’s CTO (Chief Technology Officer) or AI expert executive level participates in the council to promote joint development. In the future, we plan to consider expanding the scale to the level of global AI alliance (alignment) as well as participation of other domestic operators.

◇Combination of AI capabilities for each area of ​​3 companies including mobile communication, device, and platform

SK Telecom’s CEO Park Jeong-ho told Korean ICT companies such as Samsung Electronics at CES2020 held in Las Vegas last January. “For Korea to take the lead in the global AI war, it is time for cooperation rather than competition between domestic companies.” It started by emphasizing the need for initial cooperation.

SK Telecom, Samsung Electronics, and Kakao have advanced AI technology over the years based on their respective strengths such as mobile communication services, smart devices, and messenger platforms. Cooperation is reported to have progressed rapidly after the three companies decided that combining these capabilities can increase domestic AI technology to the global top level within a short period of time. Accordingly, a joint working group was formed in March, and CTO-level workshops were regularly operated on a bi-weekly basis, and the working-level planning and development team held online meetings from time to time to discuss key cooperation tasks and discuss specific development directions.

◇The first joint work of the three AI alliance is’AI overcoming Pandemic’

The first joint work that the three companies will unveil in the first half of next year is’Ai Overcoming Pandemic’. This AI identifies the surrounding corona risk situation in real time and analyzes the risk to recommend social distancing to users or to guide a detour route. It can be applied to disaster situations such as typhoons and heavy rains in the future.

It is different from the existing disaster notifications, which mainly inform the facts of occurrence, in that AI predicts the risk of the user’s surroundings and future travel routes, warns in advance, and provides personalized information.

‘Pandemic Overcome AI’ elaborates regional risk through big data of floating population, public disaster information, and SNS information, and schedules and tickets recorded on smartphones.·show·Predictive information is provided to users based on data such as accommodation reservation information and normal travel routes.

For example, AI analyzed that the floating population around 800 people, 20% of them moved to Yeoksam-dong at the time, based on public information that a corona confirmed person came out of a building near the Euljiro entrance area in Seoul, and’sang’ the risk at the entrance to Euljiro. As a result, Yeoksam-dong is analyzed as’middle’. Accordingly, users who commute to Euljiro are recommended to use their own car, and users who reserved a movie theater in Yeoksam-dong are guided to distance.

In addition, artificial intelligence analyzes news by applying general-purpose artificial intelligence technology including a large Korean language model to’Ai overcoming Pandemic’. It will be evolved so that users can summarize and deliver desired information or accurately understand various disaster-related information requests and generate appropriate answers.

The three companies will develop it as a back-end AI platform rather than creating a separate service with’Pandemic Overcome AI’. It is a form that opens core functions and technologies to the public such as developers, research institutes, and companies in the form of API (application program interface), and supports app/service development. It is scheduled to be released in the first half of next year on a separate site that the three companies will operate together.

◇Solving social challenges such as aging and joint development of AI services

The three companies decided to continue cooperation in AI research to solve social difficulties such as social aging and fine dust, starting with’AI over the pandemic’. The position is that the possibility of cooperation is open in all areas of ICT, such as converging various capabilities and business areas of each company such as 5G, smartphone, AI, and messenger platforms. The three companies also revealed that if there is an ICT company that wants to cooperate and join the alliance, they will be able to work together with open mind.

Yoo Young-sang, CEO of SK Telecom’s MNO business, said, “This initial AI cooperation between leading domestic ICT companies will not only serve as an important momentum for Korea to take the lead in fierce global competition, but also contribute to building a social safety net in Korea.”

Samsung Electronics President Roh Tae-moon said, “This cooperation is meaningful in that it is a project that contributes to the growth of the domestic AI ecosystem in the long term by providing basic technology components that can be widely used in industry and academia, starting from solving the social challenge of overcoming the pandemic. Is big,” he said.

Kakao Yeo Min-soo, CEO of Kakao, said, “We will work closely with great partners to solve social challenges, and we will continue to contribute to solving social problems with technology.”