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Lee Gyu-lee

Korea Times Business Reporter

Lee Gyu-lee is a business writer at The Korea Times, focusing primarily on IT & telecommunications, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and KOTRA. Prior to this, she has covered a wide range of cultural news, from film, television and K-pop to lifestyle and fashion.

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Tech & Science

Kakao updates Kanana-2, releases 4 open-source models

Kakao has updated its proprietary large language model (LLM), Kanana-2, releasing four additional variants of the model as open source. After demonstrating strong performance and efficiency optimized for agentic artificial intelligence (AI) with Kanana-2, which was open-sourced in December on Hugging Face, the company rolled out a major update a month later, adding four significantly improved models to its open-source lineup. The newly released models — the Base, Instruct, reasoning-focused Thinking and research-optimized Mid-training models — emphasize high efficiency and cost-effectiveness, while substantially strengthening tool-calling capabilities essential for agentic AI. “The updated Kanana-2 is the result of our deep focus on how to build practical agentic AI without relying on expensive infrastructure,” said Kim Byung-hak, performance lead for Kakao’s Kanana project. “By open-sourcing models that deliver high efficiency even on general-purpose infrastructure, we hope to offer a new alternative for AI adoption and help advance Korea’s AI R&D ecosystem.” The models

Jan 20, 2026By Lee Gyu-lee
Kakao updates Kanana-2, releases 4 open-source models
Tech & Science

Top 3 telecoms expect over $2.7 bil. in combined operating profit despite cybersecurity incidents

Three major Korean telecom companies are projected to post a combined annual operating profit exceeding 4 trillion won ($2.7 billion) for 2025, despite a series of large-scale hacking incidents and data breaches that weighed on short-term performance. According to analysts’ consensus estimates released over the past month, SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus are expected to reach total revenue of 60.9 trillion won with an operating profit of 4.38 trillion won for the year. The combined revenue rose 3.25 percent and operating profit increased 25.4 percent compared to the previous year, recovering to the 4 trillion won range for the first time since 2023. The rebound comes even with short-term losses for SK Telecom and KT in response to security breaches, including contract termination fee waivers, bill discounts and customer compensation programs. While these measures impacted their quarterly earnings, steady performance in their core businesses and the growth of new ventures helped offset the losses. SK Telecom is expected to record revenue of 17.15 trillion won and an operating profit of 1.0

Jan 20, 2026By Lee Gyu-lee
Top 3 telecoms expect over $2.7 bil. in combined operating profit despite cybersecurity incidents
Companies

GS to offer self-developed AI safety agent free of charge to SMEs

GS Group is offering its self-developed artificial intelligence (AI)-powered safety management agent, AI Risk Assessment (AIR), to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) free of charge. Through the initiative, the company aims to share its field-driven AI transformation experience and expertise with smaller workplaces that have been slower to adopt AI, in a bid to raise safety standards across industries. “AIR is an AI agent developed based on real on-site needs identified by field staff themselves,” a GS Group official said. “Through this initiative, we hope SMEs can experience the benefits of AI-driven safety management firsthand and ... meaningfully help close safety gaps across worksites.” “GS will continue to enhance Korea’s industrial competitiveness and safety standards through its accumulated AX experience and expertise,” the official added. GS Power, a subsidiary of GS Group, first introduced AIR — an agent that integrates AI into job risk assessments — to improve both efficiency and quality in the process, drawing attention as a model case in industrial saf

Jan 19, 2026By Lee Gyu-lee
GS to offer self-developed AI safety agent free of charge to SMEs
Tech & Science

KT signs AI digital media partnership with Taiwan cable giant Kbro

KT will team up with Taiwan’s largest cable TV operator Kbro to develop artificial intelligence (AI)-powered digital media and smart home services. The telecom company announced that it signed a strategic memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Kbro on Thursday to bring its portfolio of media services and device technologies to the Taiwanese market. Under the agreement, KT plans to introduce its AI-driven offerings such as AI-powered smart home solutions, conversational voice recognition, AI-optimized user experience and user interfaces, and AI-powered content recommendation features. “This partnership combines KT’s strength in media and AI technologies with Kbro’s local platform capabilities to enhance competitiveness in AI-powered smart home and media services,” said Kim Chae-hee, executive vice president of KT’s media business division. “KT will continue to push for global expansion across telecommunications and media by building on our AI technologies.” The two companies will also collaborate on developing technologies and service models essential for smart home transfo

Jan 16, 2026By Lee Gyu-lee
KT signs AI digital media partnership with Taiwan cable giant Kbro
Tech & Science

National AI model project faces backlash over ‘hasty wild card entry’

Korea’s government project to build a homegrown artificial intelligence (AI) foundation model is facing mounting criticism after the government tore up its own competition rule, abruptly deciding to allow "a wild card entry" for a consortium that had been eliminated in earlier selection rounds or had not participated in the process in the first place. The Ministry of Science and ICT on Thursday announced that three consortia — led by LG AI Research, SK Telecom and Upstage — advanced to the second phase of the national foundation model project, dropping two teams led by Naver Cloud and NC AI. The project selected five consortia for the first phase after dropping big-name tech firms such as Kakao and KT. The ministry had originally planned to eliminate one team at each stage across three phases, leaving only two teams by the end of the year. However, it eliminated two consortia in the evaluation for the second phase and abruptly announced it would recruit one additional consortium to join the project from the second phase, while guaranteeing the same supports such as graphics proces

Jan 16, 2026By Lee Gyu-lee
National AI model project faces backlash over ‘hasty wild card entry’
Tech & Science

PHOTO Kakao founder reappears in public after acquittal

Kim Beom-su, Kakao founder and head of its Future Initiative Center, visits the company's onboarding program for newly hired employees at its artificial intelligence campus in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday. The founder made a public appearance for the first time after being acquitted of charges related to alleged stock price manipulation involving SM Entertainment in October last year. Courtesy of Kakao

Jan 16, 2026By Lee Gyu-lee
[PHOTO] Kakao founder reappears in public after acquittal
Tech & Science

Naver Cloud, NC AI cut from national AI foundation model race

Two consortia, led by Naver Cloud and NC AI, have been eliminated from the government-led national artificial intelligence (AI) foundation model project after the first round of evaluation. The Ministry of Science and ICT announced the results of the first evaluation on Thursday, revealing that only three teams — LG AI Research, SK Telecom and Upstage — advanced to the second round. The ministry said that the evaluation for the first stage involved three assessments: benchmark performance, expert evaluation and user experience. LG AI Research’s team received the highest overall score with 90.2 points, while the average score of the five shortlisted teams was 79.7 points. LG's model dominated in all three assessments, scoring 33.6 out of 40 points in benchmark, 31.6 out of 35 points in expert review and a perfect 25 points in user experience. The ministry explained that Naver Cloud was disqualified for failing to meet the project’s requirement for technology originality. Naver said it accepts the ministry's decision and will not seek to rejoin the project, despite the option to app

Jan 15, 2026By Lee Gyu-lee
Naver Cloud, NC AI cut from national AI foundation model race
Tech & Science

LG CNS invests in CHA Biotech to fast-track AI-powered digital health care

LG CNS is accelerating its digital health care business in partnership with CHA Biomedical Group, making a 10 billion won ($6.8 million) equity investment in its affiliate CHA Biotech. The company said Thursday that it signed a strategic partnership agreement with CHA Biotech a day earlier to carry out the investment and collaborate on artificial intelligence (AI) transformation (AX) and digital transformation (DX) initiatives for the development of AI-powered digital health care services. CHA Biomedical Group is a comprehensive bio and health care company spanning hospitals, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology research and medical services with several affiliates, including CHA Biotech, CHA Meditech, CMG Pharmaceutical and CHA Vaccine Institute. Through this investment, LG CNS and CHA Biomedical Group plan to establish a regular joint consultative body and carry out major AX and DX projects. “Through our partnership with CHA Biomedical Group, we aim to strengthen our competitiveness in digital health care platforms,” an LG CNS official said. “We will position ourselves as a leading tec

Jan 15, 2026By Lee Gyu-lee
LG CNS invests in CHA Biotech to fast-track AI-powered digital health care
Tech & Science

SK Telecom unveils next-gen in-car AI agent

SK Telecom has introduced its in-car artificial intelligence (AI) agent, A. Auto, bringing it to market through its deployment in Renault Korea’s newly launched model, Filante. The company said Wednesday that its new in-car AI agent goes beyond simple voice commands to comprehensively understand the driver’s behavior patterns and real-time driving conditions. It is embedded directly into the vehicle’s infotainment system, allowing drivers with hands-free and safe access to AI while driving, “This A. Auto launch opens up new possibilities for in-vehicle AI agents,” said Kim Ji-hoon, head of SK Telecom’s A.(A-DoT) Business. “We aim to position A. as Korea’s ‘flagship AI’ that users can experience not only in vehicles, but across a wide range of touchpoints.” With the AI agent, users can control infotainment services, such as phone calls, news updates, GPS navigation service via TMap and music streaming on FLO, as well as key in-car functions. It also allows users to adjust the air conditioning, monitor air quality and even open or close windows with voice commands. Pow

Jan 14, 2026By Lee Gyu-lee
SK Telecom unveils next-gen in-car AI agent
Tech & Science

Fairness dispute clouds national AI foundation model project

As the government prepares to announce the results of the first-round evaluation of its national artificial intelligence (AI) foundation model project on Thursday, debate continues to intensify over what constitutes “from-scratch” development and how fairness can be ensured in the evaluation process. The Ministry of Science and ICT is expected to eliminate one of the five participating consortia — Upstage, SK Telecom, Naver Cloud, LG AI Research and NC AI — based on model performance and development originality. The project aims to establish a sovereign foundation model free from excessive reliance on foreign AI technology. However, after the five teams unveiled their models in a presentation last month, it is now facing disputes over evaluation standards, particularly regarding the definition of the project’s essential requirements and the benchmarking system used to compare the competing models. The controversy began when Upstage’s Solar-Open-100B model was accused of reusing inference code from Chinese firm Zhipu’s AI model. Similar allegations later surfaced against SK

Jan 14, 2026By Lee Gyu-lee
Fairness dispute clouds national AI foundation model project
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