LG Electronics President Jo Joo-wan to Visit the US Next Month... Personally Recruiting AI Talent

Jo Joo-wan, President of LG Electronics, will fly directly to the United States next month to recruit artificial intelligence (AI) talent. In a situation where the competition to secure AI experts is intensifying, the plan is to proactively secure promising global talent to strengthen the company's future vision and competitiveness in the AI business.

According to industry sources on the 12th, President Jo plans to visit the western United States, where Silicon Valley is located, in May to recruit outstanding AI talent. It is currently expected that he will visit universities in the area such as Stanford, Caltech, and UC Berkeley.

Jo Joo-wan, CEO of LG Electronics. [Photo by LG Electronics] [Image source=Yonhap News]

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President Jo’s direct search for AI talent is closely related to LG Electronics’ efforts to strengthen its AI-related business.

At a recent shareholders' meeting, President Jo stated, "(The beginning of) full-scale AI home appliances is the UP appliances created by LG Electronics," engaging in daily exchanges with Samsung Electronics over AI home appliances.

Last year, LG Electronics announced a blueprint to transform into a smart life solution company that connects and expands various customer experiences through AI, showing a company-wide commitment to the AI business.

So far, LG Electronics has frequently held AI conferences overseas, including in the United States, communicating with global experts and building human networks. In September last year, recruitment officers from LG Electronics’ major business divisions toured local universities in North America to promote recruitment for master's and doctoral candidates. They also held tech seminars targeting local graduate students and experienced professionals in Japan, continuing their recruitment activities consecutively.

LG Electronics also operates in-house programs to nurture AI experts in partnership with prestigious global universities such as Carnegie Mellon University in the U.S. and the University of Toronto in Canada. In particular, LG and the University of Toronto jointly established the 'Toronto Artificial Intelligence Research Institute' to conduct various industry-academic projects and research AI core technologies. Domestically, LG is running AI-related recruitment contract departments in collaboration with Yonsei University, Sogang University, and others.

At the group level, efforts to secure outstanding talent early are also intensifying. For example, about 300 domestic master's and doctoral candidates are gathered in one place for recruitment activities. Earlier, on the 4th, LG held the ‘LG Tech Conference,’ an R&D event, at LG Science Park in Magok to attract talent. The event drew attention as about 50 top executives from LG affiliates, including Kwon Bong-seok, LG Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Vice Chairman, wore hoodies to facilitate communication.

The competition among domestic and international companies to secure AI experts is becoming increasingly fierce. Samsung Electronics recently offered a minimum base salary of 500 million KRW to attract AI talent. The General Artificial Intelligence (AGI) Computing Lab, established by Samsung last month to develop AI semiconductors, is actively recruiting senior leaders and senior engineers in areas such as AI infrastructure software engineering and AI computing architecture.

Leaders of major U.S. big tech companies are also engaging in direct talent acquisition while competing with rivals. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, recently revealed that Ethan Knight, a machine learning expert at Tesla, moved to 'xAI,' an AI startup founded by Musk. Last month, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, reportedly sent personal emails to AI researchers at Google DeepMind to recruit them, according to IT media The Information. Recently, Google recruited Logan Kilpatrick, former OpenAI development cooperation director.

An industry insider said, "As AI technology emerges as a shortcut to strengthening corporate competitiveness, the competition for such talent is intensifying," adding, "All companies are turning their eyes overseas to find AI experts at the level they desire."

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