LG Uplus launches generative AI ixi-GEN

South Korean major mobile carrier LG Uplus Corp. officially launched its generative artificial intelligence model ixi-GEN on Tuesday, joining its bigger crosstown rivals KT Corp. and SK Telecom Co. in the race to lead the business-to-business generative AI market.

Its generative AI is a smaller large language model (sLLM) trained with its communication and platform data on the hyperscale multimodal AI Exaone, developed by LG AI Research, the artificial intelligence lab under LG Group, said LG Uplus.

While a general large language model (LLM), like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, ranges in the hundreds of billions to even a trillion parameters, an sLLM comes with much fewer parameters with a focus on a certain industry or business.

As an  sLLM, ixi-GEN can be fine-tuned faster than larger language models to better perform specific tasks or behaviors for particular industries.

It boasts high security because it can be installed in a local server, instead of the cloud. As it is trained on clean data offered by Exaone it is also less likely to encounter copyright infringement lawsuits, according to the company.

LG Uplus will apply ixi-GEN to its eight services, including chat agent and mobile shop adviser services, within this year before offering it to the B2B market.

Its generative AI is a telecom-specific AI model, allowing rapid application in telecommunications services.

Along with the generative AI tool, the company also introduced an AI development platform called ixi Solution, which allows ordinary people to use AI in the real world. 

KOREA’S TOP 3 MOBILE CARRIERS IN GENERATIVE AI RACE

As the smallest of Korea’s top three mobile carriers has launched its proprietary generative AI service, a generative AI race in the country’s telecommunications industry is heating up.

Its bigger rival KT last year unveiled the generative AI service Mi:dm for corporate clients, and the country’s No. 1 mobile carrier SK Telecom is expected to introduce its LLM tailored for telecom companies as early as this month.

SK Telecom has been developing global telecom-specific LLMs in partnerships with SoftBank, Deutsche Telekom, Singapore Telecommunications and the United Arab Emirates' e&.

Korea’s telecom trio have picked AI as their next growth engine to offset slow growth momentum in the country’s saturated telecom and internet markets.

LG Uplus is speeding up its transition into an AI company to lead AI transformation (AX).

In early April, it announced a plan to ramp up investment in AI this year by 30% to 40% from last year and double its AI talent.

Write to Ju-Hyun Lee at deep@hankyung.com

Sookyung Seo edited this article.