Naver’s 'Cue:' throws down the gauntlet to MS Bing Chat

Naver Corp., South Korea’s dominant web portal operator, on Wednesday launched a beta service of its new generative artificial intelligence technology-powered search engine Cue:, which is similar to Microsoft Corp.’s Bing Chat backed by OpenAI’s latest large language model (LLM) GPT-4.

The Korean internet giant incorporates its latest LLM HyperCLOVA X in Cue:, which understands a complex question with multiple sentences and comes up with a comprehensive answer with summarized information, even including related subjects and references, in less than 10 seconds, according to Naver.

“It is possible to clearly understand the (Cue:’s) reasoning process behind a generated answer because Cue: is powered by multi-step reasoning,” said an official from Naver.

Generative AI systems use reasoning to make inferences, draw conclusions and solve problems like humans.

BETTER KOREAN UNDERSTANDING

Naver is confident that it will take the lead in the generative AI search market at home with the indigenous tool, Cue:, which boasts a better understanding of the Korean language than its foreign rivals, especially Microsoft’s Bing Chat.

The Korean search engine is expected to directly challenge the GPT-4-suppoted Bing Chat, which was touted to be the most perfect search engine up to date by Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella, which would open a new era for internet search.    

But the foreign rival frequently gives wrong answers to complex questions asked in Korean, while Cue: can give more detailed and comprehensive answers to Korean questions thanks to its better inferencing ability in its native language, according to Naver.

Cue: is not flawless because it also suggests totally unrelated answers.

VERSATILE TOOL

However, it is expected to unlock vast opportunities as it can be applied to various other services, Naver expected.  

The Korean portal giant plans to apply Cue: to other Naver services, ranging from shopping and payment to search ads, in phases from November.

Cue: is expected to be more useful in travel planning and a shopping or area information search, according to Naver.

“Generative AI technology will unleash the unfathomable potential across various services,” Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon emphasized.  

The success of Naver’s homegrown generative AI services is crucial in fending off the ascent of foreign rivals at home and staying competitive in the growing generative AI market, local technology industry experts said.

According to Bloomberg Intelligence, the global generative AI market is forecast to grow to $137 billion in 2024 and then to $548 billion in 2028.

A month ago, Naver unveiled its upgraded generative AI HyperCLOVA X, which powers a wide range of its AI services, including Cue:, CLOVA X, and some business-to-business tools, such as office suite Project CONNECT X and hybrid cloud service Neurocloud.

CLOVA X is Naver’s version of ChatGPT by Microsoft-backed OpenAI. The Korean native chatbot can aid creation, summarization, induction, translation and coding.

Naver said it is capable of multi-turn conversations, more than one turn in an interaction.

Write to Ji-Eun Jeong at jeong@hankyung.com
Sookyung Seo edited this article.