SKT Partners with OpenAI for Talent Discovery... Hosts 'Global AI Hackathon'

SK Telecom announced on the 25th that it has successfully concluded the global AI hackathon ‘Prompter Day Seoul 2023,’ held in collaboration with OpenAI in the United States.

The hackathon, co-hosted by SKT and OpenAI, was conducted with the theme of ‘developing services that can help humanity through artificial intelligence (AI)’ to discover global talents who will create a healthy AI ecosystem.

Yu Young-sang, President of SKT, delivering a welcoming speech to encourage participants at the finals of 'Prompter Day Seoul 2023' [Photo by SKT]

‘Prompter Day Seoul 2023’ attracted significant attention, with a total of about 226 teams submitting creative ideas based on OpenAI’s generative AI models. Among them, 20 teams that advanced through the online preliminary round presented their AI services at DreamPlus Gangnam on September 23-24.

The grand prize of this hackathon was awarded to the team ‘Seoncheonjeok Prompters,’ who developed ‘Gulseom,’ a service that converts difficult sentences into easier ones for users with low literacy due to autism and other conditions. The excellence award went to the team ‘Team Hyper,’ who developed ‘Jikimi,’ a service that blocks voice phishing by identifying information such as caller and purpose during calls.

SKT and OpenAI awarded a total prize money of 100 million KRW, including 40 million KRW for the grand prize (1 team), 20 million KRW for the excellence award (1 team), and 10 million KRW each for two merit awards. Winners of merit awards and above are granted exemption from the first screening when applying for SKT Junior Talent (new employee) recruitment. SKT and OpenAI plan to jointly develop services and consider commercialization of outstanding ideas discovered in this competition.

Yoo Young-sang, President of SKT, who visited the finals venue, said, “In a society undergoing rapid innovation, AI that develops together with people is important,” and added, “I am confident that services that will innovate the AI ecosystem and add value to society will be born from this hackathon held with OpenAI.”

The hackathon featured Jeong Seok-geun, Head of SKT Global/AI Tech Division, as an on-site judge, and James Diet, OpenAI Strategic Customer Lead, as a remote judge. They advised on whether participants’ ideas appropriately use AI technology to improve lives. Additionally, AI experts such as Professor Oh Hye-yeon from KAIST and Will Saborio, Head of OpenAI Strategic Customer Team, participated as speakers, sharing opinions with hackathon participants on the direction of the global ecosystem changing due to AI.

James Diet, OpenAI Strategic Customer Lead, said, “I was pleased to collaborate with SKT, a leading AI company, and exchange passionate ideas with participants,” adding, “We will continue to move forward with the goal of ‘AI that benefits all humanity.’”

Jeong Seok-geun, Head of SKT Global/AI Tech Division, stated, “I am honored to have successfully created a platform where global AI talents can freely express their ideas with the same goal as OpenAI,” and added, “We will lead innovation in the global AI ecosystem with AI technology that focuses on people.”

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