LG Uplus CEO Hwang Hyeon-sik speaks during a recruiting event in Silicon Valley, Saturday (local time). Around 10 master's and doctoral students studying artificial intelligence at major U.S. universities were invited. Courtesy of LG Uplus

LG Uplus, SK Telecom and other ICT companies are scrambling to recruit experts in artificial intelligence at a time when enabling AI has become a top survival priority for companies, especially tech companies, according to the companies and industry officials, Monday.

They said they are rolling up their sleeves to increase the number of AI professionals by dispatching the company's top executives to the United States where the world's top AI experts are gathered and offering to foster university students majoring in ICT as their AI professionals.

An official in the IT industry here said tech companies are scrambling to recruit AI experts because AI-related businesses are important and will be responsible for their future.

"Recruiting talented personnel with experience in the AI industry or majoring in AI has become a top priority for ICT companies. The importance of the AI industry will continue to grow in the future, so the competition for attracting experts will continue," the official said on condition of anonymity.

LG Uplus said its CEO Hwang Hyeon-sik hosted a recruiting event in Silicon Valley on Saturday (local time), inviting more than 10 master's and doctoral students studying AI at major U.S. schools such as Stanford University, Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Illinois.

The telecommunications company said its CEO traveled to the U.S. as part of efforts to attract experts and strengthen its AI capabilities, adding that the attendees are students in core AI fields such as natural language processing (NLP), large language models (LLM) and AI vision.

"LG Uplus aims to be a digital transformation platform company that drives change in the daily lives of our customers," Hwang told the attendees. "To achieve this, we need AI technology that will make customer experience a reality, and most importantly, people who can advance this technology."

The company said students taking part in the event were excited that LG Uplus, with its agile corporate culture, will be able to quickly try out various things related to new AI technologies.

Models pose for a photo to promote the SKT AI Fellowship program designed to foster future professionals in the AI field, Monday. Courtesy of SK Telecom

SK Telecom also said that it is garnering applicants for its future AI expert nurturing program, SKT AI Fellowship. Undergraduates and graduate students studying AI are eligible to apply for the program by forming teams of three or less and submitting their research plans by next month.

Participants of the previous AI Fellowship program wrote papers and filed patents based on their research, and some of their technologies have been commercialized in SK Telecom's services, the company said, adding that this year's program is focused on researching generative AI projects such as LLM and multimodality.

The selected teams will conduct research projects from May to October, mentored by current developers, and will receive research support and rewards of up to 10 million won ($7,230) per team. The winners will also be able to pass the first round of the company's recruitment process.

"We hope that the participants of the SKT AI Fellowship will grow into future professionals in the AI field experiencing the real world and gaining solid practical experience," said Ahn Jung-hwan, head of corporate culture at SK Telecom.

Kakao and KT are also operating recruitment-linked programs with domestic universities to ensure a stable supply of AI experts. The companies offer courses in machine learning, deep learning and AI vision in collaboration with universities and provide internships and job opportunities to students who complete the courses.