LG AI Research: Foundation of group’s long-term future

Artificial intelligence that composes music and creates images, a forecasting model that reduces the development period of customized anticancer drugs, and a chatbot that understands the context of the conversation.

These are technologies among 18 achievements developed by South Korean LG Corp.'s artificial intelligence research institute last year alone. For decades the global AI industry has been working hard to develop these next-frontier technologies.

LG AI Research was established in December 2020 as LG Corp Chairman Koo Kwang-mo pinpointed the intelligence demonstrated by machines as key to the long-term growth of South Korea’s fourth-largest conglomerate.

“LG has secured its bread and butter in areas such as batteries and automotive electronics for the next 10 years. But what’s next?” Koo reportedly said in a meeting with executives soon after he took the control of the group in June 2018.

“We need to develop AI in a preemptive manner to maintain growth engines in the 2030s.”

Koo appointed Bae Kyung-hoon, who had worked on AI projects at LG Electronics Inc. and LG Uplus Corp., the group’s mobile network operator, as the head of LG AI Research for the development of the technology for the whole conglomerate. Koo also scouted Honglak Lee, known to be one of the top 10 global AI scholars and an associate professor at the University of Michigan, as a senior vice president and chief scientist at the research institute.

'DON’T TALK TO ME. I AM BUSY'

Such support from the chairman allowed LG AI Research’s 190 staff with master’s and doctorate degrees to focus only on research and development for the group’s future. Personnel in charge of the institute's organizational culture frequently check the work environment to ensure researchers can concentrate on their work.

The center has a poster with a slogan -- “Don’t talk to me. I am busy” -- in the lobby. But it also has several video game consoles for employees to relieve stress in the rest area. Researchers are free to dress as they please. Its chief Bae even comes to work in gym clothes.

LG AI Research started bearing fruit after about one year of its establishment. It unveiled Exaone, a supergiant AI, which has some 300 billion parameters and is equipped with multimodal capabilities to acquire and process information related to nearly all aspects of human communication. That is expected to help give an AI human the expertise to help in decision-making. LG Corp. utilized Exaone to create an AI human Tilda that debuted its fall-winter collection at New York Fashion Week.

IN-HOUSE AI COURSES FOR CUSTOMIZED TALENT

The group officially launched an in-house AI graduate school this year to foster customized engineers with a nine-month course for a master’s degree and an 18-month program for a doctoral degree that will be recognized within the group. It will also operate a separate non-degree course.

Employees doing the courses are set to work on projects that are difficult to be developed by individual affiliates. They learn from the group’s AI experts, apply the knowledge to the projects, and work on papers to be published in academic journals.

Last year, the group piloted the master's and doctoral courses. As a result, LG Display Co. developed a design technology to put more pixels on the same screen with AI. LG Electronics and LG Innotek Co. researched ways to make precise demand forecasts using AI that will significantly cut inventory costs, according to the companies.

Koo was reportedly satisfied by such achievements.

“If they need anything else, tell me anytime,” he was quoted as saying by a group source. “I will spare no support, so please focus only on research.”

Earlier this year, he invited outside directors to visit to show off the AI research center and the graduate school.

In 2022, 11 group employees are scheduled to study at the graduate school while 30 are set to enroll in the non-degree program. They will work on a technology that immediately detects abnormalities in the manufacturing process and prevents accidents. They will also develop a technology that allows robots to control parts of LG Chem Ltd.'s petrochemical production process.

LG Group plans to invest 200 billion won ($166 million) by 2023 to foster AI talent with an aim to secure about 1,000 experts in the sector by 2030.

Write to Su-Bin Lee at lsb@hankyung.com
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.