KT joins state project to build AI-driven 'dark factory' solutions
A promotional image of KT's "dark factories" / Courtesy of KT
KT said Thursday it has joined a government-led research project to develop design and construction solutions for "dark factories" — fully automated, unmanned plants that run around the clock using artificial intelligence (AI) across every stage of production.
The project falls under a Ministry of Science and ICT initiative to build a research and development ecosystem for a software platform based on collaborative intelligence and physical AI. It aims to build a dark factory near Jeonbuk Innovation City in North Jeolla Province.
Besides KT, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, LG Energy Solution, Harim Foods, Shinsung E&G and the Korea Productivity Center are taking part as joint research institutions.
KT will develop a system built on modular edge AI data center infrastructure — compact, distributed AI data centers pre-assembled on factory floors — to generate and verify Sim-Ready synthetic data, or digital data usable in virtual simulation environments, along with an integrated environment for operating AI agents.
Through the research, KT aims to resolve errors that can occur when AI agents trained in simulated environments are deployed at real industrial sites, and to build the operational and control systems dark factories require.
KT plans to later test an integrated dark factory platform, including modular edge AI data centers and a Data Flywheel system in which data and AI models interact to improve performance, at project partners' manufacturing sites.
It also plans to turn the capabilities gained through the trials into customized physical AI solutions for different industries, building on its global AI transformation (AX) experience and partnerships to help it enter the global manufacturing AI market.
A KT official at the company's AX Future Technology Institute said the project brings together core government, local government and industry-academia-research institutions, and that KT will accelerate development of core infrastructure and operating platforms for commercializing dark factories, adding that the company aims to lead innovation in Korea's manufacturing productivity and the physical AI industry ecosystem.
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.