SKT seeking 3rd-party ideas for AI services

By Yoon Sung-won

SK Telecom said Monday it is seeking joint research projects for new services and devices compatible with its artificial intelligence (AI) home assistant system, NUGU.

Through a contest on creative services and device development for the AI system, the nation’s top telecom company pledged to choose three winning teams and invest a total of 200 million won for joint research projects.

“SK Telecom has concentrated on developing technologies such as AI, voice recognition and natural language processing since 2012,” SK Telecom’s future technology research and development center head Park Myung-soon said in a statement. “Through active collaboration with diverse startups and experts in the AI sector, we will establish a mutually-beneficial ecosystem in the domestic AI industry.”

Earlier on Aug. 31, the company unveiled AI system services available on a dedicated cylindrical terminal device made of speakers, microphones and a processor unit. Users can give verbal orders to the device to be provided with information such as weather and personal schedules, or to run applications such as music streaming and connected home appliances control.

SK Telecom said it is planning to create synergy effects with third-party partners. To this end, the company will open the core application programming interface of the NUGU system and expand cooperation with external developers to expedite diversification of compatible application services.

“NUGU has been designed to evolve itself by accumulating data as it is based on voice recognition and deep learning technologies,” the company said. “We expect that the system’s ability to recognize voice signals will improve with more research and development collaboration with third-party players.”

SK Telecom said it will receive the ideas until Oct. 21 through its website. The final result will be announced Nov. 2, it said.