SK Telecom and Ministry of National Defense Introduce National AI Model to Defense for the First Time... Pioneering Defense AI Transformation

Ministry of National Defense to Provide GPU Resources to SK Telecom

"Expanding the AI Ecosystem Through Public-Private-Military Cooperation"

SK Telecom is joining forces with the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Science and ICT to drive the transition to defense AI (AX).

On May 14, SK Telecom announced that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Ministry of National Defense at its headquarters in SKT Tower, Euljiro, Jung-gu, Seoul, aiming to promote national defense AI acceleration through the application of the Ministry of Science and ICT’s independent AI foundation model in the defense sector.

This marks the first case of applying the Ministry of Science and ICT's independent AI foundation model project to the defense sector, signaling an initiative to expand the AI ecosystem and enhance K-AI competitiveness through cooperation among the private sector, government, and military.

SK Telecom and the Ministry of National Defense have agreed to collaborate in various areas, including: ▲ Development and validation of defense-specialized AI models based on the independent AI foundation model ▲ Collection, provision, and utilization of public data in the defense sector ▲ Support for the use of graphic processing units (GPUs) in connection with national AI projects.

On the 14th, SK Telecom announced that it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Ministry of National Defense at the SK Telecom Tower headquarters in Euljiro, Jung-gu, Seoul, to promote 국방 AX through the utilization of the Ministry of Science and ICT's independent AI foundation model in the defense sector. The photo shows, from left, Myungguk Kim, Head of SK Telecom Industrial AI Division, and Junbeom Jeon, Director of the National Defense AI Planning Office at the Ministry of National Defense. Photo by ???

This agreement is part of the Ministry of Science and ICT’s ongoing independent AI foundation model project and serves as a follow-up measure to accelerate digital transformation in the defense sector by applying AI.

Earlier, in January, the SK Telecom elite team advanced to the second phase of the independent AI foundation model project by developing 'A.X K1,' a 519B-parameter large-scale AI model—the first in Korea to surpass 500 billion parameters.

SK Telecom plans to lead the development of defense-specialized AI models based on its large language model (LLM) development capabilities and GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) infrastructure. To efficiently operate large-scale AI models, SK Telecom will apply lightweight technologies to A.X K1 and K2, further train the models with defense data, and deliver AI models optimized for defense environments. The company intends to provide the Ministry of National Defense with a lightweight version of the A.X K1 model that features reduced size and increased processing speed.

In particular, the defense sector requires the highest levels of security and data sovereignty. The company emphasized the significance of this collaboration as the first step toward introducing "sovereign AI" to achieve defense sovereignty.

The Ministry of National Defense will provide SK Telecom with GPU resources secured through the Ministry of Science and ICT’s “National AI Project” during the second quarter of this year.

Myungguk Kim, Head of the SK Telecom Industrial AI Division, stated, "It is significant that we are able to contribute to strengthening K-defense competitiveness based on SK Telecom’s integrated capabilities, spanning from AI technology to data centers and telecommunications. We will continue to expand AI adoption in sectors where data sovereignty and security are crucial, such as finance, manufacturing, healthcare, and the public sector, further enhancing K-AI competitiveness."

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