SK Tel launches world’s 1st Korean large language model

SK Telecom Co. on Tuesday announced the official launch of the world’s first Korean large language model (LLM) “A.”, or A Dot, which it said will evolve into a personal AI assistant service.

The official launch is expected to accelerate the South Korean mobile carrier's push to transform into an AI platform on par with global players.

“SK Telecom aims to make the leap into a global AI company that leads the AI ecosystem by strengthening its own competitiveness in areas including the personal AI assistant ‘A.’, ‘A.X LLM’, AI semiconductor and AI data centers,” SK Telecom Chief Executive Ryu Sang-yong said during a presentation at the SUPEX Council meeting on Tuesday.

The council is SK Group’s highest consultative panel, comprised of chief executives from 20 companies under the business group.

The telecom services provider branded its artificial intelligence technology as "A.X" and the name of its own super language model as "A.X LLM."

AI PYRAMID STRATEGY

At the council meeting Ryu introduced the company's new “AI pyramid strategy” centered on AI infrastructure, AI transformation and AI services

At the bottom of the pyramid is AI infrastructure, where SK Telecom’s technological capabilities are concentrated. The infrastructure includes AI data centers, AI semiconductors and multimodal large language models.

To offer energy-saving and high-capacity solutions with better operating margins, SK Telecom’s AI infrastructure will be installed with Sapeon’s neutral processing units and SK Hynix Inc.'s high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, Ryu said.

LAUNCH OF NEXT-GENERATION AI CHIPS

Sapeon is SK Telecom’s AI chip fabless company. It will launch a next-generation inference AI chip “X330” at the end of this year, SK said in a statement on Tuesday.

The X330 boasts about twice the computational performance and 1.3 times better power efficiency than the latest inference chips on the market, SK Telecom said.

SK Telecom is also collaborating with a diverse range of partners, including Anthropic, OpenAI, and Konan Technology, to develop telco-specific LLMs. SK Telecom has invested in Anthropic and Korean Technology.

SK expects the proportion of AI-related investment to triple to 33% of its capital expenditures over the next five years, compared to 12% between 2019 and 2023. 

By 2028, its AI service revenue is expected to reach 25 trillion won ($18.5 billion).

Under the investment plan, SK Telecom plans to almost double its data center capacity by 2030.

AI TRANSFORMATION

AI transformation is located in the middle layer of the AI pyramid, under which it will innovate its existing mobile and broadband services with AI technology.

Simultaneously, it will expand into new business areas such as urban air mobility, AI healthcare, media and advertising technology with an aim to develop competitive personal AI assistant services.

“The company will also promote mergers and acquisitions in areas including media and advertising technology to create new business opportunities through AI transformation,” Ryu said.
 

In the mobile business, the country’s mobile giant said AI can be used not only to provide better customer support, but also to reduce 20-30% of costs in the mid to long term.

For the broadband business, it will evolve SK Broadband’s Btv service into AI TV to offer curated and personalized TV services with the help of an AI agent.

“With our AI pyramid strategy, we will make accelerated moves to strengthen our own capabilities and cooperate with diverse partners, and expand our AI-related resource investments,” the CEO added.

TAILORED AI SERVICES

To develop a broader range of AI platforms, SK Telecom has invested in AI startups and joined hands with global players.

In July this year, it formed the Global Telcom AI Alliance with Deutsche Telekom AG, UAE's e& EAND.AD and Singapore Telecommunications.

SK Telecom plans to introduce an AI phone service with call summary and calendar functions such as adding a scheduled plan or appointment made during a call to the calendar, or sharing addresses.

“A. sleep,” a sleep management solution, will be added to its AI service lineup this month. It is developing the technology in collaboration with sleep tech startup Asleep to evaluate sleep quality and analyze users’ sleep patterns.

“SK Telecom plans to expand its presence in the global AI ​​service market by launching personal AI assistant services simultaneously in many countries across the world,” its CEO Ryu said.

Write to Seung-Woo Lee at leeswoo@hankyung.com

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.