LG Uplus debuts AI speaker

LG Uplus CEO Kwon Young-soo, right, and Naver CEO Han Seong-sook pose with the mobile carrier’s new AI speaker Friends Plus during a launch event at its headquarters in Seoul, Monday. / Courtesy of LG Uplus

By Kang Seung-woo

LG Uplus released an artificial intelligence (AI) speaker, Monday, in a bid to expand its presence in the smart home business.

Although LG arrived late to the market that SK Telecom pioneered and KT soon joined, the nation’s third-largest mobile carrier, partnering with Korean portal giant Naver, seeks to ensure unrivaled smart home services with its speaker, named Friends Plus.

LG is a leading player in the home IoT business with the number of subscribers surpassing 1 million and showing rapid growth in IPTV subscribers.

Powered by the search engine’s Clova AI platform, the LG speaker has added features of controlling IPTV such as video on demand (VOD) and database search and home IoT services.

For example, the voice-recognizing device can help users find movies or TV content with a few keywords. In addition, while watching TV, users can tell the speaker to search the internet and it will show results from Naver.

The speaker is also capable of controlling home IoT products at the same time, and it supports real-time translations in three languages _ English, Chinese and Japanese.

With voice commands, users can also shop at LG Uplus’ affiliates’ sites, including LG Household and Health Care and GS Retail.

“The bilateral cooperation is expected to further establish LG Uplus as a competitive player in the internet protocol TV (IPTV) and internet of things (IoT) businesses, while Naver has paved the way for the firm to attract more users with its AI platform,” LG Uplus CEO Kwon Young-soo said in a press conference at its headquarters in Seoul.

Naver CEO Han Seong-sook also said, “Thanks to the partnership with LG Uplus, Clova will be able to expand its presence in the sector. Naver will put forth efforts to offer AI services, making life more convenient and valuable.”

SK Telecom unveiled its AI device dubbed NUGU in August of 2016, followed by KT’s GiGA Gene this January.

As a latecomer, LG started working with Naver on the speaker in May. LG Electronics also launched its AI speaker ThinQ Hub in cooperation with the nation’s largest internet portal site, aimed at controlling and monitoring LG-made home appliances.

“An AI speaker was a tough nut to crack,” Kwon said. “As Naver is far ahead of us in terms of AI technology, we have decided to team up with it and that is helping us differentiate ourselves from rivals.”

For Naver, the partnership is expected to pave the way for the company to take its AI platform offline.

“Naver had been focused on internet services, so we had struggled to bring it to the offline world. On the occasion of the partnership, we have found a scenario,” Han said.

According to LG Uplus, new subscribers to its IPTV and IoT services will get the Friends Plus speaker for free until Jan. 31, 2018.

The smart speaker will be available for 129,000 won ($118) at the firm’s website.