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| Statistics Korea Commissioner Han Hoon, center, speaks during a meeting with Naver Cloud on ways to improve statistical service using artificial intelligence at Naver headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Friday. Courtesy of Statistics Korea |
By Yi Whan-woo
Statistics Korea is seeking to capitalize on an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot to be launched soon by internet giant Naver to offer tailor-made data for businesses.
The plan comes after Statistics Korea, which is responsible for gathering, analyzing, interpreting and presenting data under the Ministry of Economy and Finance, collected opinions from conglomerates and business lobby groups on possible measures to help them better utilize figures provided by the government.
"We accordingly thought an AI chatbot would be an optimal way to support firms to identify information they need out of a vast pool of statistics and that's how we decided to work with Naver," said Yi Sun-hi, a senior deputy director at Statistics Korea's Statistical Digital Transformation Division.
She referred to a consultative meeting between Statistics Korea and Naver Cloud, the cloud service platform operator of Naver, to discuss AI-backed statistical services.
Attended by Statistics Korea Commissioner Han Hoon, the meeting centered on providing more accessible and efficient statistical services using Hyperclova X, an AI chatbot programmed for human-like conversation.
Developed by Naver Cloud, Hyperclova X is recognized as the Korean version of ChatGPT in the United States. It will be launched in July or August.
The stats agency opted to capitalize on Hyperclova X instead of developing its own AI chatbot in order to save time and money, as well as other reasons concerning efficiency, according to Yi.
"We want Hyperclova X-based service to engage in a conversation with business people and help them find what they need from our digital network," she said.
She added that Hyperclova X-based services will specialize in sorting out customized data required by businesses, noting the firms found it difficult to do so using Statistics Korea's online tools.
During Friday's meeting, the commissioner expressed hope the private-public sector cooperation through Hyperclova X will help users to experience innovative statistical services.
To better understand the needs of businesses, Statistics Korea previously held eight meetings in April.
Among the participating companies and business lobby groups were Naver, Samsung Electronics, POSCO, SK Telecom, Coupang, Mirae Asset Securities, Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Korea International Trade Association, Korea Enterprises Federation and Korea Federation of SMEs.
Think tanks run by conglomerates, such as Samsung, LG and CJ, also took part in the meeting.
The commissioner stressed that using statistics is a must for companies in coping with a rapidly-changing business world at a time of uncertainty and that Statistics Korea will enhance relevant support.
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