South Korea's largest telecommunications carrier SK Telecom said Monday that it has become the third-largest shareholder of Persona.AI, a Seoul-based artificial intelligence contact center, or AICC. The company did not disclose other details, including the deal size and the amount of the stakes it secured. An AICC offers 24-hour customer consultations via AI chatbots and callbots. Persona.AI, using its own natural language processing engine, offers related solutions and subscription-based s

Technology Aug. 21, 2023

CHEONAN, South Chungcheong Province -- Commemorating the 78th anniversary of the Aug. 15 Liberation Day this year, the state-run Independence Hall of Korea and the country’s largest telecommunications carrier SK Telecom have joined forces to restore faded photos of independence fighters and animate them using artificial intelligence. Under a partnership signed in 2020, the Independence Hall and SK Telecom kicked off a five-year project to turn the memorial into a high-tech “Eco-Mus

Technology Aug. 20, 2023

SK Telecom, South Korea's leading telecommunications carrier, said Wednesday that it will host a hackathon event with California-based startup OpenAI next month in Seoul to discover talent who are likely to lead the future artificial intelligence industry. Prompter Day Seoul 2023 will run under the theme of developing services that can help humanity through AI. Planners, developers and designers who are interested in generative AIs can participate in the competition to develop services and

Technology Aug. 16, 2023

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, local restaurants and hotels have been increasingly adopting server robots, and almost seven out of 10 are believed to be from China. According to industry estimates, there were about 5,000 server robots last year, a surge from some 3,000 units in 2021. This year, the figure is expected nearly to double to 10,000 units. In a recent report, the Korean Association of Robot Industry said China-made robots made up about 70 percent of the total number of server robots

Technology Aug. 15, 2023

Samsung Electronics’ chip division and SK hynix have seen their inventories surge in the first half of this year, surpassing a combined 50 trillion won ($37.3 billion), according to the semi-annual reports released by the two firms on DART, the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure board Tuesday. Samsung's device solutions division in charge of the tech giant's chip business saw total assets on its inventory jump 15.9 percent on-year to 33.7 trillion at the e

Technology Aug. 15, 2023

LG Electronics said Tuesday that its Universal Up’s Kit, a set of accessories that aim to enhance the accessibility of home appliances for disabled people, will be unveiled during the IFA trade show held in Berlin next month. The accessories include a detachable handle for a washing machine, a rotating rack for a refrigerator, and a silicon-based braille cover for a remote control. (LG Electronics)

Technology Aug. 15, 2023

SK hynix, South Korea's No. 2 chipmaker, said Friday it has begun mass-production of a mobile DRAM that offers the industry's largest capacity aimed at minimizing power consumption and features low voltage operation for devices, including smartphones and tablets. SK hynix said the 24-gigabyte low-power double data rate 5 eXtended (LPDDR5X) mobile DRAM was first supplied to Chinese Oppo’s latest flagship smartphone, Oneplus Ace 2 Pro, which launched Thursday. “With the timel

Technology Aug. 11, 2023

Samsung Electronics on Friday announced the official launch of its latest foldable smartphones -- the Galaxy Z Flip5 and Fold5 -- in some 50 countries, after record preorders for the foldables at home. Starting sales in major countries, which include Korea, the US, Britain, France, Germany, Singapore and China, the South Korean tech giant will complete the global launch by next month, the company said. The Galaxy Z Flip5 and Fold5 smartphones garnered 1.02 million preorders in seven days, surpas

Technology Aug. 11, 2023

Samsung Electronics’ new foldable smartphones -- the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Fold 5 -- have yet to be launched, but preorder figures suggest that they are likely to be a super hit. The South Korean tech giant said Tuesday that preorders for the two models amounted to 1.02 million units in South Korea, setting an all-time high record for the form factor. The preorder record marked by the previous models was 970,000 units last year. While Samsung accepted seven-day preorders until Monday ahead o

Technology Aug. 8, 2023

South Korean telecom giant, KT Corp., said Monday that its CEO nominee will be appointed as the company’s new chief by taking shareholders’ votes at the extraordinary shareholders meeting slated for the end of this month. KT Chief Financial Officer Kim Young-jin said at the company’s earnings conference that the firm will improve business performance in the latter half this year under a stable management system and strive to improve corporate value with the CEO nominee taking t

Technology Aug. 7, 2023

Korean companies have stepped up efforts to support the World Scout Jamboree as the event's host announced an early withdrawal from the campground in North Jeolla Province due to inclement weather on Monday afternoon. Some major conglomerates, including Samsung and Hyundai, have invited Scouts to their business sites, following President Yoon Suk Yeol's order to offer tour programs for the jamboree participants. Hyundai Motor Group on Monday opened its commercial vehicle plant in Jeonj

Industry Aug. 7, 2023

Competition over the growing foldable smartphone market is growing fiercer, as Samsung seeks to maintain the market dominance it has enjoyed since the launch of its first foldable phone in 2019, while Chinese rivals are racing to catch up. Xiaomi and Oppo have reportedly passed the Chinese government’s certification and are expected to roll out their new foldable phones, the Mix Fold3 and Find N3, respectively, within this month, according to industry sources on Sunday. Chinese consumer el

Technology Aug. 6, 2023

Kakao, the operator of South Korea’s No. 1 messenger app KakaoTalk, said Thursday that it plans to introduce a new artificial intelligence foundation model to balance performance and cost efficiency, as well as services integrated to the model after October this year. Kakao CEO Hong Eun-taek said at the company’s earnings conference that he believes that a sole hyperscale model would not be suitable for providing every service under the most optimized conditions. “Many AI model

Technology Aug. 3, 2023

SK Inc. C&C, the IT solutions unit of SK Group, said Wednesday that it will build South Korea’s first alternative trading system, scheduled to launch in the latter half of next year. The IT service provider will construct a comprehensive operation and management system to support the trading, brokerage, solicitation and agency services for listed securities and depositary receipts that Nextrade will carry out with its official authorization in the following year. Nextrade is an alter

Technology Aug. 2, 2023

Naver Financial, a financial platform owned by South Korean internet giant Naver, said Tuesday it aims to introduce a mobile payment system to be used at stores in China, allowing the company to provide a better shopping experience mainly for Koreans traveling there. The company has recently signed partnership agreements with Alipay Plus and China UnionPay, two of China’s top three mobile payment services that also include WeChat Pay, as it aims to launch its popular mobile payment servi

Technology Aug. 1, 2023