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Samsung, SK, AI startups try to gain upper hand
By Baek Byung-yeul
Since OpenAI's generative artificial intelligence (AI) service, ChatGPT, was unveiled last November, the field of AI services has seen an explosive increase in attention around the world.
Many people use the innovative technology simply for kicks or to ask for help in various subjects, including computer software programming, translation, web search and even writing novels and making music.
As shown by ChatGPT, the AI service is now penetrating into our daily lives and will be widely applied to various industrial sectors, while the technology is expected to trigger digital innovation commensurate with the emergence of the internet and smartphones, according to industry experts.
Although companies based in the United States are getting ahead quickly in the field of AI technology, experts say Korean companies involved in areas such as AI memory semiconductor manufacturing, chip design and Korean versions of generative AI services, should not be discouraged, because they have enough time to catch up.
"I don't think ChatGPT alone will change the world" said David Chon, CEO of local AI startup, DMLab. But he added that the service is "a beginning of a new chapter in AI product generation."
"Until now, AI technology was mainly used to show what AI can potentially do. With ChatGPT, now AI technology is in a more complete format and can become integrated into our daily activities. I think this is why there is a global buzz around ChatGPT," Chon told The Korea Times.
"I think it will quicken the pace of product development and become integrated into our daily lives faster," the CEO added.
Kim Min-seok, business development manager at local AI chip design company, Furiosa AI, said that the successful rise of ChatGPT signals that AI services are now a new wave.
"I personally think that AI services will penetrate into every vertical market imaginable, across all horizontal functions in existence. OpenAI has recently begun the commercialization of ChatGPT and began offering ChatGPT API (application programing interface) to developers," Kim said.
"This heralds a new age of tremendous potential and ChatGPT is just the start. Large tech companies and hyperscalers, including domestic players like Naver and Kakao, will soon release their own versions of ChatGPT," he added.
Considering the fact that ChatGPT garnered over a million users since the service was opened on Nov. 30, Lee Sang-heon, a researcher at Hi Investment & Securities, said it can be highly utilized not only for the marketing and sales of products, but also for R&D, operations, corporate risk management and legal review.
"The advent of web browsers in 1994, Google's search engine in 1998 and iPhone in 2007 changed the lives of people around the world and evolved the ecosystem of the information technology industry. In this regard, it should be noted in the future whether ChatGPT, which appeared last November, can become a game changer in the AI era while accelerating innovation in many industries," Lee said in the report.
Korean firms to benefit from AI boom
Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, Naver, Kakao and many AI startups here are also trying to capitalize on the AI boom, viewing the technology as a major business opportunity.
Samsung and SK, the leading memory semiconductor makers, expect orders for high-performance memory chips, such as high bandwidth memory (HBM) DRAM, to increase because these next-generation chips will become essential in processing enormous amounts of data required by AI services.
The performance of CPU and GPU has dramatically increased, but the improvement of memory chips that support these core processing units have been lagging behind. However, the companies believe that HBM will be used increasingly to resolve performance bottlenecks between CPU, GPU and memory chips.
Samsung, the world's leading memory chipmaker, already developed HBM-PIM technology, in conjunction with U.S.-based chip design company AMD last October, which combines memory chips with AI processors. SK hynix is also responding to growing demand for high-performance memory chips by supplying its HBM3 chips to Nvidia since last June.
In addition, Naver and Kakao, the two major internet companies here, recently said they will release their own ChatGPT-like services, claiming that their generative AI model can understand the Korean language better than any other AI service.
Startups like Furiosa AI are also gaining attention from investors as WarBoy, an AI chip developed by the company, showed better performance than Nvidia at the MLPerf AI chip contest last September in terms of image classification and objection detection.
"FuriosaAI designs neural processing units (NPU), simply known as an AI chip. NPUs are designed to accelerate AI applications, and more specifically, deep neural networks. There are many different types of AI applications, including natural language processing, computer vision and recommendation. Many of these applications have tremendous potential to be adapted and applied across almost all vertical industries," Kim at Furiosa AI said.
The government is also showing a lot of interest in the ChatGPT-led AI boom, saying the technology could change the entire landscape of different industries.
"ChatGPT will be a signal that AI is penetrating into our daily lives," Lee Jong-ho, ICT minister said on Feb. 22 during a meeting with company officials and academic experts in Seoul. "The government will spare no support in helping domestic companies maximize their digital capabilities to lead the hyperscale AI market."
