KT opens AI research center

KT Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu leaves his signature to commemorate the opening of the artificial intelligence (AI) tech center at the KT Institute of Convergence Technology in Umyeon-dong, Seoul, Thursday. / Courtesy of KT

By Yoon Sung-won

KT opened an artificial intelligence (AI) tech center Thursday to accelerate its AI-related research and businesses.

The telecom company established the AI Tech Center within its Institute of Convergence Technology in Seoul. KT Vice President Kim Jin-han has been named to lead the new facility, the company said.

“I pledge to make the KT AI Tech Center take a leading role in boosting research on AI technologies and in the development of related services,” Kim said. “To this end, the tech center will concentrate on improving our AI-based digital assistant GiGA Genie and advance the company’s AI platform business.”

KT said the AI Tech Center has facilities for the company and its partners to research, develop and test AI-related technologies. In particular, the tech center has a super-computing system dubbed the “graphic processing unit (GPU) computing cluster” to back up the processing of massive amounts of data for AI and deep-learning technology research. This system has a 720,000 GPU core, the largest in Korea in terms of graphic processing capability, the company said.

KT, led by Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu, pledged to establish the AI Tech Center earlier this year in a drive to boost AI business capabilities. It also launched a business unit dedicated to the GiGA Genie business in May.

The telecom company has about 130 employees who specialize in AI technologies and services, and is planning to hire another 50 experts this year to boost manpower in the sector.