Business - The Korea Times

On-device AI critical to expanding generative AI

By Kwon Oh-hyungArtificial intelligence (AI) is coming closer to our everyday lives. If you're using your smartphone to read this article, chances are it is using AI technology to make your on-device experience better, from connectivity to graphics and extending further into other features such as improved photography, automatic subtitles and more. It makes our experiences on smart connected devices more intuitive and personalized and our days more productive.Kwon Oh-hyung, senior vice president and president of Asia-Pacific at Qualcomm TechnologiesWith generative AI, your smartphone can also become a true digital assistant. PC users can use it to read or compose emails, draft documents and create presentations automatically. AI-driven cockpits will allow the driver and passengers to more naturally interact with and control entertainment, navigation and vehicle functions to create more a personalized and intuitive experience. Up until now, the AI discussion has centered on the cloud. ChatGPT uses huge amounts of processing, storage and memory. Much of the focus so far has been on tra

Aug 22, 2023

On-device AI critical to expanding generative AI

Samsung Electronics to foster AI, computer engineering professionals

gettyimagesbankBy Baek Byung-yeulSamsung Electronics is nurturing talented professionals in artificial intelligence (AI) and computer engineering to strengthen its research capabilities for next-generation semiconductors and enhance the competitiveness of its research in the emerging sectors, its R&D unit said Monday.Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT), an R&D unit of Samsung, said it will hold this year's Samsung AI and CE Challenge for graduate and undergraduate students studying at local universities for about two months to support the activities of young researchers.SAIT is holding the contest for the third time this year to discover young professionals in science and technology. This year, the competitions have expanded to four categories by adding computer engineering to the existing AI field.The four competition categories are image recognition technology for autonomous driving; machine learning algorithms for simulating semiconductor materials; simultaneous quantitative and qualitative evaluation of camera image quality using AI technology; and computing s

Aug 21, 2023By Baek Byung-yeul

Samsung Electronics to foster AI, computer engineering professionals

Head of preparatory office for space agency faces suitability issue

Minister of Science and ICT Lee Jong-ho announces the master plan for the Korea Space and Aeronautics Administration at Seoul Government Complex in this July file photo. NewsisBy Park Jae-hyukControversy is growing over the Ministry of Science and ICT's latest decision to give the position of the head of the Preparatory Office for the Korea Space and Aeronautics Administration (KSAA) to a government official, who specializes in the IT sector, rather than the space industry.The ministry said Wednesday that Director-General Lee Jae-hyung would take charge of the preparatory office on Thursday.Since he started his career as a government official, he has gained a certain amount of knowledge regarding technologies. He has handled policies related mainly to artificial intelligence and telecommunications, under the second vice science minister, who is in charge of ICT policy. He was deployed to the presidential office last year to assist the presidential secretary for science and technology. Lee's predecessor, Choi Won-ho, who served as the first director-general of the preparatory office,

Aug 17, 2023By Park Jae-hyuk

Head of preparatory office for space agency faces suitability issue

Google supports Korean startups' growth, expansion overseas

From left, Kwon Ryun-hwan, CEO of Petpeotalk, Yoon Jeong-ha, CEO of Zamface, and Park Sang-eon, CEO of Medility, pose during a press conference introducing startup founders that have been selected for ChangGoo, Google Korea's startup accelerator program, at Google Korea's office in Seoul, Thursday. Courtesy of Google KoreaBy Baek Byung-yeulGoogle Korea's startup accelerator program, ChangGoo, is serving as a springboard for high-potential startups here, with participating companies seeing an average 62 percent increase in revenue and a 69 percent increase in overseas expansion, the Korean unit of the U.S. tech giant said Thursday.“The ChangGoo program is in its fifth year and was launched in 2019 in cooperation with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korea Institute of Startup & Entrepreneurship Development to help Korean startups grow. From 2019 to 2023, 460 companies participated, and many achievements and overseas expansion cases were created,” Shin Kyung-ja, head of Marketing at Google Korea, told reporters during a press conference in Seoul.“Many ach

Aug 17, 2023By Baek Byung-yeul

Google supports Korean startups' growth, expansion overseas

Samsung's new foundry plant in Texas partners with US AI chip design firm

This photo, taken by Kyung Kye-hyun, CEO of Samsung Electronics' Device Solutions Division, on July 14, shows Samsung Electronics' foundry plant in Taylor, Texas, is under construction. Groq, a U.S. chip design company, said Tuesday (local time) that it agreed to produce its chip at Samsung's Taylor foundry plant. Captured from Kyung's InstagramBy Baek Byung-yeulSamsung Electronics' contract-based chip manufacturing foundry plant in Taylor, Texas, secured its first customer as Groq, a U.S.-based AI chip design company, announced that it has ordered the Korean chip maker to produce its next-generation AI chip, Tuesday (local time).Groq said it is partnering with Samsung to produce its latency processing unit (LPU) chip, an AI accelerator chip, on a 4-nanometer process at Samsung's foundry plant in Taylor. The plant is now under construction, with plans to be completed by the end of this year.This U.S. company was founded by former Google engineers in 2016 and has introduced its LPU chip, a type of AI chip with an engine that maximizes the use of memory bandwidth to perform high-speed

Aug 16, 2023By Baek Byung-yeul

Samsung's new foundry plant in Texas partners with US AI chip design firm

Samsung, LG unveil trend-leading technologies at K-Display exhibition

Visitors to Samsung Display's booth watch the company's “slidable” displays during the K-Display 2023 exhibition at the COEX convention center in Seoul, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Baek Byung-yeul By Baek Byung-yeulSamsung Display and LG Display ― Korea's flagship display companies ― are showcasing their cutting-edge OLED screens at the K-Display 2023 exhibition, offering visitors a glimpse of the next-generation monitors to be used in various sectors in mobile devices, vehicles and mixed-reality, they said Wednesday.Organized by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and hosted by the Korea Display Industry Association, the K-Display exhibition is the largest exhibition for the display industry in Korea, now in its 22nd year.The event, the largest yet, will be held from Wednesday to Friday with 172 companies including Samsung and LG.Samsung and LG showed off their technology at the event, unveiling new products of OLED, the next-generation display technolog

Aug 16, 2023By Baek Byung-yeul

Samsung, LG unveil trend-leading technologies at K-Display exhibition

Regulator notifies Google of punishment for unfair practices in app market

This composite image provided by Yonhap shows Google's app store and headquarters. YonhapKorea's antitrust regulator said Wednesday it has sent a formal letter to Google on its decision to slap a fine of 42.1 billion won ($31.4 million) on the U.S. tech giant for unfair business practices aimed at solidifying its dominance in the local mobile gaming app market.In April, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) decided to take the punitive action on Google and its regional arms for clinching shady agreements with Korean mobile game companies between June 2016 and April 2018, hindering them from launching content on One Store, a homegrown app market in Korea.The notification was delivered to the U.S. firm in late July. The FTC said it has also ordered Google to revise its agreements signed with local mobile game developers and establish an internal monitoring system that oversees fair-trade issues in the domestic app market. Google is required to report the outcome from the system to the FTC, it added."A monopolistic app market can give a negative impact on all areas of the mobile ecosystem, an

Aug 16, 2023

Regulator notifies Google of punishment for unfair practices in app market

SK Telecom invests $100. mil in US AI startup Anthropic

Models try out SK Telecom's AI service A. Friends at a pop-up store at the Lotte World Adventure amusement park in Seoul, Sunday. The company said it will invest $100 million in the U.S. AI company Anthropic to further improve its capabilities in the generative AI business. Courtesy of SK TelecomBy Baek Byung-yeulSK Telecom will invest $100 million in U.S.-based generative AI startup company Anthropic in a bid to improve its competence in the emerging technology and further develop various language-based AI services for global markets, the mobile carrier said Sunday.The company said it decided to invest in the U.S. company, best known for its Claude AI chatbot service, to strengthen cooperation with each other in the AI business. The announcement came a month after the company launched the Global Telecom AI Alliance with global mobile carriers including Deutsche Telekom, e& and Singtel in July, to jointly develop a telecom AI platform.Headquartered in San Francisco, Anthropic is a generative AI-specialized company founded in 2021 by former OpenAI researchers. In addition to winni

Aug 13, 2023By Baek Byung-yeul

SK Telecom invests $100. mil in US AI startup Anthropic

Concerns grow over gov't plan to cut R&D budget

President Yoon Suk Yeol listens to Minister of Science and ICT Lee Jong-ho's explanation about the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, or Danuri, before a Cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Seoul, Jan. 3. Korea Times fileBy Park Jae-hyukKorea's state-sponsored scientific research activities are expected to suffer a major setback, as insufficient tax revenue has led the government to seek a sharp reduction in its R&D budget for next year, according to sources familiar with this issue, Friday.On Wednesday, the Ministry of Science and ICT sent emails to research institutes that are under the supervision of the National Research Council of Science & Technology, notifying them that the government's funding for their research projects will be smaller than initially planned.The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) was informed of a 29 percent reduction in funding, while the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) was notified of a 23 percent cut.The Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) and the Korea Research Institute

Aug 11, 2023By Park Jae-hyuk

Concerns grow over gov't plan to cut R&D budget

SK Telecom creates video of independence activist Yu Gwan-sun with AI

A media art installation created by SK Telecom's AI technology shows a video of independence activist Yu Gwan-sun, who protested for Korea's independence during the 1910-45 Japanese colonial period, at the Independence Hall of Korea in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, in this photo provided by SK Telecom, Thursday. Courtesy of SK TelecomBy Baek Byung-yeulSK Telecom used artificial intelligence (AI) technology to create videos of prominent figures in Korea's independence movement against Japan such as Ahn Jung-geun and Yu Gwan-sun, the company said Thursday.The video media art featuring the historical figures was created with SK Telecom's AI image restoration technology known as SUPERNOVA and will be unveiled to the public on Friday at the Independence Hall of Korea in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province.SK Telecom added that it will exhibit a robot to provide historical commentary on the independence movement and an immersive exhibition experience via augmented reality (AR) technology. The mobile carrier plans to develop varied content utilizing its cutting-edge technologies thro

Aug 10, 2023By Baek Byung-yeul

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