AI One Team Expands Collaboration with Startups... Supporting Open Innovation

KT-Korea International Trade Association to Sign MOU on 27th
Expansion from Large Corporations, Schools, and Institutions to Startups

KT announced on the 28th that it has signed a business agreement with the Korea International Trade Association to create an open innovation ecosystem for realizing South Korea as the number one AI nation. The photo shows Choi Jun-gi, Head of KT AI/Big Data Business Division (right), and Lee Dong-gi, Head of Innovation Growth Division at the Korea International Trade Association, taking a commemorative photo after signing the MOU. Photo by Choi Jun-gi

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] The AI One Team, an industry-academia-research consortium led by KT, has expanded its collaboration scope to include startups.

On the 28th, according to KT, the company signed a business agreement with the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) at the Startup Branch in COEX, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, to establish an open innovation ecosystem aimed at realizing South Korea as the number one AI nation.

Through this collaboration, AI One Team and KITA plan to promote ▲discovering AI business cases through cooperation with startups ▲pursuing open innovation between AI One Team and KITA ▲creating an environment to revitalize the AI open ecosystem ▲supporting the enhancement of global competitiveness of outstanding AI startups.

In particular, through open innovation, they will identify business cooperation opportunities between the domestic industry and startups with excellent AI capabilities and conduct Proof of Concept (PoC) validations. Utilizing accumulated experience, they also plan to implement follow-up support projects such as attracting investment and building overseas networks.

Since its launch with the goal of becoming the "number one AI nation," AI One Team has been developing AI technologies by discovering R&D tasks through a roundtable process involving about 40 AI experts. Participants include KT, Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Hanyang University, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), LG Electronics, LG Uplus, Korea Investment & Securities, Dongwon Group, and Woori Bank.

Recently, they have achieved results in inter-company business cooperation, such as linking KT’s AI platform "Giga Genie" with LG Electronics’ AI platform "ThinQ" through LG Electronics’ "Smart Mirror." They are also nurturing AI talent to address the shortage of practical AI technical personnel.

Choi Jun-gi, Head of KT AI/Big Data Business Division, said, “Through cooperation with the Korea International Trade Association, we will secure new growth engines for the industry and support the growth of startups to create an AI open ecosystem. KT will lead AI innovation together with startups in AI One Team to add value to the lives of the people.”

Lee Dong-gi, Head of Innovation Growth Division at KITA, said, “Since 2019, the association has been implementing various projects aimed at expanding the open ecosystem and global scale-up through open innovation and PoC support between domestic and international large and medium-sized enterprises, public sectors, and startups. Based on the experience accumulated so far, we will do our best to help AI One Team and outstanding startups create innovation growth engines.”

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