AI recreates 100-year-old handwriting as “Malmoiche”

[The Financial News] SK Telecom is using artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze a Korean dictionary manuscript from more than 100 years ago, create a typeface, and select and unveil 100 native Korean words suited to everyday use. The campaign aims to bring records of the Korean language left by our ancestors into daily life today, marking the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Hangul Day.
SK Telecom said on the 7th that it would launch the “2026 Malmoi” campaign with the National Institute of Korean Language and the National Hangeul Museum.
The campaign uses the company’s own AI foundation model, A.X K2. It analyzed the complete scan of Malmoi, a Korean dictionary manuscript left by Ju Si-gyeong and his disciples, as well as the Standard Korean Language Dictionary and native Korean words in Urimalsaem, a public-participation Korean-language knowledge dictionary.
The typeface “Malmoiche,” created on this basis, and “100 Beautiful Native Korean Words Collected by AI,” reviewed by the National Institute of Korean Language, will be released on the 8th.
The Malmoiche typeface began with the manuscript’s explanation of “giyeok (galjuk).” AI analyzed the characters in the manuscript as images and organized the forms of consonants and vowels, then used these as the basis for completing the typeface.
The 100 words were selected based on whether their definitions evoke lyrical or positive images, whether they sound natural in current usage, and whether they can be used in titles, names, or captions. They include “yunseul,” ripples sparkling in sunlight or moonlight; “sunnun,” clean, untouched snow in its accumulated state; “putnat,” an acquaintance one knows well enough to recognize by face; and “bolumul,” a word for dimples. SK Telecom will publish the words in a booklet and donate it to the National Hangeul Museum, which has declared this year the “Year of Hangeul Donation.”
A campaign video connecting records of the Korean language preserved in writing and sound will also be released that day on SK Telecom’s YouTube channel. It shows how the Malmoi manuscript is transformed through AI into a typeface and a collection of 100 native Korean words, and features a voice recording of Lee Geuk-ro held at the National Library of France. Lee was a Korean-language scholar who led the compilation of “The Great Dictionary of the Korean Language” as secretary general of the Korean Language Society.
Lee Seung-yeol, head of SK Telecom’s Strategic Communications Office, said, “We launched this campaign so that the Korean words our ancestors collected more than 100 years ago could be carried forward with AI and shared in a typeface and language anyone can use,” adding, “We will continue working to ensure AI can help preserve the value of our language and culture.”


[email protected] Yoon Hong-jip Reporter