LG Electronics Partners with KT and LG Uplus to Strengthen National AI Competitiveness

[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] LG Electronics announced on the 3rd that it will join KT and LG Uplus to strengthen the national competitiveness in artificial intelligence (AI).

The three companies will sign a business agreement at the KT Gwanghwamun Building in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the same day. The signing ceremony will be attended by Park Il-pyeong, CTO (Chief Technology Officer) of LG Electronics, Jeon Hong-beom, Head of KT AI/DX Convergence Business Division, and Lee Sang-min, Head of LG Uplus FC (Future & Converged) Division.

Based on this agreement, LG Electronics will participate in the ‘AI One Team’ to develop core AI technologies and discover new business opportunities.

‘AI One Team’ is an industry-academia-research consortium aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of the domestic AI industry. Participants include LG Electronics, KT, LG Uplus, Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings, KAIST, Hanyang University, and the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI).

The three companies plan to collaborate with other ‘AI One Team’ members to strengthen AI capabilities through sharing of technologies and experiences, create business outcomes by enhancing AI competitiveness in products, services, and solutions, build a talent development platform connecting industry, academia, and research, and contribute to solving social issues based on AI capabilities.

They will jointly conduct research and cooperation to secure AI core technologies such as big data and deep learning by leveraging their technologies and experiences. LG Uplus and KT have strengths in AI based on 5G and data, while LG Electronics has advantages in AI solutions based on its accumulated know-how as a manufacturer, enabling synergy among the three companies.

The three companies will also strengthen cooperation to achieve business outcomes. They plan to review voice recognition interworking between KT’s AI platform ‘Giga Genie’ and LG Electronics’ ‘LG ThinQ.’ Additionally, they will link LG Electronics’ smart home appliances with KT and LG Uplus’s home IoT services to enhance customers’ smart home experiences.

Furthermore, the three companies will participate together in ‘industry-oriented AI education’ and ‘AI talent development’ with AI One Team to establish a foundation for AI professionals to be active across the industry, thereby raising South Korea’s AI competitiveness.

They will also develop models that can contribute to preventing the spread of infectious diseases such as COVID-19. By combining KT and LG Uplus’s communication data with LG Electronics’ smart appliances and AI technologies, they plan to build more multidimensional and sophisticated models.

LG Electronics has AI research and development bases in five global locations including Seoul, Silicon Valley in the U.S., and Toronto in Canada, conducting research in various AI fields such as deep learning algorithms, reinforcement learning, edge computing, and data analysis.

Jeon Hong-beom, Head of KT Division, said, “With LG Electronics and LG Uplus, which have outstanding capabilities in AI, joining, we expect the collaboration within AI One Team to accelerate.”

Lee Sang-min, Head of LG Uplus FC Division, stated, “We will embark on bold cooperation that breaks existing frameworks to enhance domestic AI technology competitiveness and innovate customer experiences. Starting with discussions on AI cooperation in the post-COVID era, we will do our best to discover globally competitive new AI businesses.”

Park Il-pyeong, CTO of LG Electronics, emphasized, “From an open innovation perspective, we will collaborate with competitive companies, universities, and research institutes in various fields to enhance national AI competitiveness and create tangible business outcomes.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.