Yoo Young-sang "SKT Consortium to Launch AI Model with 500 Billion Parameters by Year-End"

[Financial News] Yoo Young-sang, CEO of SK Telecom, has formalized the launch of an independent artificial intelligence (AI) model with 500 billion parameters by the end of the year. The SK Telecom-led consortium has been selected as one of five elite teams in the government's 'Independent AI Foundation Model' project, aiming to survive as one of the final two teams with its strength in 'AI Full Stack' innovation capabilities encompassing the entire AI development process. 
According to the telecommunications industry on the 20th, CEO Yoo posted on LinkedIn stating, "We plan to launch a large language model (LLM) with 500 billion (500B) parameters by the end of the year."
CEO Yoo highlighted the AI Full Stack implementation capability as a differentiator of the SK Telecom consortium. AI Full Stack is a concept that encompasses the entire AI business process, including AI data collection, infrastructure construction, and service provision. The SK Telecom consortium plans to apply the super-large AI model it developed to industries such as office, manufacturing, automotive, gaming, and robotics to drive innovative changes.
To this end, the SK Telecom consortium actively collaborates with the K-AI Alliance, formed by SK Telecom and Korean AI companies with the goal of activating the AI ecosystem and expanding globally. CEO Yoo mentioned, "FriendlyAI, RebelUp, MakinaRocks, Nota AI, and Twelve Labs are participating in this project."
The super-large AI model being developed by the SK Telecom consortium applies 'omnimodal' technology, which can integratively process various forms of data such as text, images, voice, and video. The SK Telecom consortium includes companies like Krafton, mobility AI company 42dot, inference AI semiconductor (NPU) manufacturer Rebellion, AI agent Liner specialized in professional knowledge and information search, and SelectStar, which possesses technology to ensure data stability of AI models. Given that all participating companies in the SK Telecom consortium have business networks domestically and internationally, SK Telecom believes that AI service demonstration and global expansion are feasible. 
CEO Yoo stated, "We will go beyond the existing domestic LLM architecture to create an AI agent accessible to all people in Korea, reshaping the future of AI."

mkchang@fnnews.com Jang Min-kwon Reporter