2024.10.04
KT, Microsoft to develop Korea-customized ChatGPT
By SARAH CHEA, Korea JoongAng
Daily - KT will develop a Korea-customized
ChatGPT and AI assistant together with Microsoft as the U.S. tech giant
strives to lead Korea's AI market.
The Korean major
telecommunications provider said Sunday it inked a five-year strategic
partnership vowing cooperation in AI and cloud business, where the two will
invest trillions of won over the next five years.
Under the partnership, KT and
Microsoft will develop a ChatGPT model suitable for Koreans using the
technology for Open AI's GPT-4o and Microsoft's Phi family of small language
models alongside KT's accumulated data for Korean regulation ecosystem and cultures.
This AI model will be used in
KT's customer service chatbots, as well as for corporate clients.
KT will also develop its own AI
assistant for Korean users using Microsoft's Copilot, its AI-powered
conversational agent. The company also plans to develop the KT-custom AI
assistants for various business applications including education, health care
and in-vehicle infotainment.
The duo will also cooperate in
building sovereign cloud services that can be used in public and finance
sectors that have strict privacy and regulatory requirements.
A sovereign cloud operates in
compliance with the local laws of each country regarding data storage
requirements, information collection and data access. Microsoft's experiences
on building such frameworks in various European countries including Switzerland,
Italy and Belgium will help KT have the system in Korea, the Korean company
said.
“The partnership with Microsoft
presents a pivotal opportunity, not only for technological collaboration, but
also for expanding Korea’s AI foundation and driving transformative innovation
across industries and daily life,” said KT CEO Kim Young-shub. “Leveraging this
strategic partnership, we aim to rapidly evolve into an company with
unparalleled competitiveness in domestic and global markets.”
KT plans to establish a new
subsidiary dedicated to helping businesses transform with the latest AI
technologies. Microsoft will offer professional consulting over the next three
years.
The company will also work with
Microsoft Research to run research projects to develop new AI technology and
future networks. The two will open an Innovation Center in KT's headquarters in
Gwanghwamun, central Seoul, to support the research and elaborate on investment
on AI startups.