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By Kim Yoo-chul
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| Park Myung-soon, head of SK Telecom's future technology R&D center |
"SK Telecom is working on developing cloud-based and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered technologies. SK's first AI speaker, which is similar to Amazon's Echo, could be released in the latter half of the year," Park Myung-soon, head of the company's future technology R&D center, said in an interview, Thursday.
The executive attended this year's Pyeongchang Forum, organized by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), the nation's most-influential business lobby.
SK Telecom partnered with Kakao to promote the sale of its ARIA-branded AI-powered speaker as the speaker can run on Kakao's music platform ― MelOn.
"After completing voice recognition of the user, commands can be given to play music on MelOn. Also recommendations are offered using SK's unique big data analytic tools," according to the executive.
Kakao, the operator of mobile messaging app KakaoTalk, acquired a controlling stake in Loen Entertainment's MelOn for 1.87 trillion won. Loen was previously owned by SK's content affiliate SK Planet and Affinity Equity Partners.
The partnership with Kakao for ARIA AI-powered products is expected to bring benefits to both as MelOn has 29 million local users. Kakao has been consistent in finding measures to monetize its music streaming and downloading service, which was worth an estimated $500 million last year.
The senior SK executive said more content and services will be available in the future as SK Telecom has plans to support third-party developers so the developers can tap into the enhanced vice assistant programs.
"We will upgrade our upcoming service through feedback from consumers," the executive said, adding that industry leaders such as Google still lag behind SK Telecom in AI.
Such remarks came at a time when the "connected home" market is increasingly being intertwined with cloud-based computing services and AI-powered products. Amazon is leading the market with its Alexa assistant as well as Echo.
Google recently announced its own AI assistant and home speaker ― Google Assistant. Apple has a clear advantage as its voice-recognition program ― Siri ― is multilingual, while Amazon's Alexa is limited to English.
Park expects more Korean companies to join the move for the development of AI-related technologies beginning next year.
SK Telecom is eyeing both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) segments to diversify the company's revenue channels from the AI business.
"In the B2B arena, SK Telecom has strong intent to sell smart factory solution systems which could be controlled by integrated sensors within the IoT framework installed in each manufacturing facility," Park said.
The executive urged the government to ease regulations to help AI-related industries gain growth momentum.
"As big data technology is the key for AI products, we want the government to ease regulations to help companies collect personal information more easily," the executive said. "The government regulations should be flexible. Korea is late for the big data industry due to strict regulations for the use of personal information and data collection."
AI is particularly important for big data analytics in support of the IoT.
