"Not a Choice but a Necessity"... Fierce Competition Among Business Circles for 'AI' Leadership (Comprehensive)

LG Launches AI Researcher 'Expert AI Alliance'
Goo Kwang-mo Realizes Future Business Vision... Popularizing Super-large AI
Samsung, Hyundai Motor, and SK Also Actively Foster Future AI Growth Engines

(From left) Lee Jae-yong, Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics; Chung Eui-sun, Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group; Chey Tae-won, Chairman of SK; Koo Kwang-mo, Chairman of LG.

Major domestic groups in South Korea have taken a special interest in artificial intelligence (AI). They have designated AI, the core axis of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, as a future growth engine to gain a leading position in future competition. In particular, the judgment that AI is essential for the future survival of companies is believed to have played a role, as they do not hesitate to cooperate across different industries.

According to the business community on the 22nd, the heads of major groups such as Samsung, LG, Hyundai Motor, and SK are prioritizing AI in their future business initiatives. It is interpreted that the heads have clearly stated their intention to concentrate the entire company’s capabilities on strengthening AI, which is their future growth engine.

In LG’s case, the LG AI Research Institute, established in 2020, launched the “Expert AI Alliance” on this day, consisting of 13 domestic and international companies, and declared the full-scale expansion of a global super-large AI ecosystem. LG decided to invest 110 billion KRW in super-large AI development last year. It is known that Koo Kwang-mo, Chairman of LG Group, directly ordered the deployment of company-wide capabilities according to his vision for future businesses.

The “Expert AI Alliance” is the first private coalition formed by leading companies from IT, finance, education, healthcare, manufacturing, and telecommunications sectors both domestically and internationally to promote cooperation across different industries. Additionally, within the first half of this year, they plan to provide an application programming interface (API) that allows easy development of customized expert AI, removing barriers to entry for developers. Furthermore, in the second half of the year, they will start operating a service platform called “ExaOne Playground” to enable easy use of ExaOne on the web even for those without coding expertise or AI development experience, accelerating the popularization of super-large AI.

To this end, LG AI Research Institute will also introduce a new technology called “ExaOne Tuning” to reduce partner companies’ burdens related to data security and development time. By utilizing “ExaOne Tuning” technology, for example, it is possible to develop specialized expert AI services such as AI bankers by additionally training the AI on financial sector languages.

Baek Gwang-hoon, head of LG AI Research Institute, emphasized, “We will provide completely new customer experiences never seen before and become a leader in popularizing super-large AI.”

Other groups such as Samsung, Hyundai Motor, and SK are also staking their future on AI. Given the urgent need to secure future competitiveness, the heads are actively recruiting talent themselves, showing more enthusiasm than ever.

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong chose the Samsung Electronics AI Center in Canada for his first overseas trip after his parole in August last year. Earlier, Samsung had announced a plan to invest 180 trillion KRW in future businesses such as AI and 5G since 2018, reflecting the strong will of the head regarding future growth engines.

Vice Chairman Lee personally recruited Sebastian Seung (Korean name: Seung Hyun-joon), who is the head of Samsung Research, Samsung Electronics’ integrated research organization, and is drawing the blueprint for the new Samsung. At the time, Seung, a professor at Princeton University in the U.S., chose to join Samsung Electronics, which is known to reflect Lee’s strong recruitment intention.

Jung Eui-sun, Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, also emphasized “securing core AI software technologies” in his New Year’s address this year. This reflects the judgment that AI is the core of future businesses such as autonomous driving and urban air mobility (UAM).

Choi Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group, has also decided to take on the unpaid, non-executive chairman position at SK Telecom to innovate AI business. This decision is based on the belief that if SK Telecom succeeds in AI innovation, the deep change (fundamental innovation) of SK Group’s entire ICT business will accelerate.

Meanwhile, the investment and interest of major groups in AI are likely to increase further. This is because AI enables not only productivity efficiency but also the provision of various customer lifestyle services. According to a survey by EY Han Young, 61% of executives at domestic large companies identified AI as the field to focus investment on for digital transformation over the next two years.

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