SK Telecom (SKT) announced on February 26 (local time) in Barcelona, Spain, where MWC24 is being held, the meaning of the Global Telco AI Alliance (GTAA), which includes Deutsche Telekom (Germany, U.S., etc.), e& Group (Middle East, Asia, Africa, etc.), Singtel Group (Australia, India, Indonesia, Thailand, etc.), and Softbank (Japan), and SKT's future AI strategy.
On the morning of the same day, the five GTAA participants held the GTAA Founding General Meeting at MWC24 and signed an agreement to establish a joint venture to jointly develop AI Large language model (Telco LLM) specialized for the telecommunications industry and conduct business cooperation.
"This is an era where LLMs specialized in one industry are leading changes in that field," said Ryu Young-sang, President of SKT, explaining the significance of establishing the GTAA joint venture, "Global telecommunications companies are trying to become game changers that lead market changes through cooperation in AI fields such as Telco LLM."
Ryu also revealed GTAA's business vision, future goals, and expansion plans. First, the LLM of the GTAA joint venture is expected to be developed to a stage where it can be used not only by SKT but also by GTAA members within the year. He also said that starting with this joint venture, the company will create an opportunity for telecom companies around the world to gather and conduct various AI-related businesses.
Prior to the meeting on February 26, Yoo held the Global Telco AI Roundtable, a consultative body that invited more than 20 global telecom companies to explain the process of jointly developing a telco-specific AI LLM and encourage participation.
In the future, GTAA, including SKT, plans to regularly invite representative telecom companies from each language/region to hold Global Telco AI Roundtables to expand GTAA and promote collaboration among various companies. "Many of the telecom companies that attended showed a lot of interest in collaborating with GTAA," said President Ryu, referring to the progress of the Global Telco AI Roundtable.
SKT announced its AI pyramid strategy in September last year and has been accumulating AI technology and service capabilities in each field. SKT's AI Pyramid Strategy aims to revolutionize all areas of industry and life centered on three areas: AI infrastructure, AIX, and AI services.
As a result of these efforts, SKT has made remarkable achievements in the fields of AI semiconductors Sapion and AI Data Center.
However, Ryu's plan is to become a game changer that influences not only the telecommunications industry but also other industries by collaborating with global telecommunications companies based on its accumulated AI capabilities.
"SKT will not stop at existing innovations, but will continue to take bold challenges in both domestic and international markets," said Ryu. "We will become a truly global AI company."
