KT to cooperate with Thai telecom firm to create Thai language AI service

South Korea's major mobile carrier KT Corp. said Sunday it will join hands with Thailand's communication technology company Jasmine Group to create a large language model service based on the Thai language.

Heads of the two companies held a meeting at KT's headquarters in central Seoul on Thursday and agreed to jointly create a Thai language-based LLM model and devise a marketing strategy for the Southeast Asian market and a response to artificial intelligence (AI)-related regulations in the region, according to KT officials.

The discussion came after KT and Jasmine Technology Solution, Jasmine Group's ICT systems arm, signed a memorandum of understanding for the project last month.

KT said it will share technologies used for creating Mi:dm, the company's hyperscale AI service to be released later this month, to develop the LLM model for Thailand, while Jasmine Group will analyze the regional market and build a graphics processing unit farm to power the LLM.

The two companies plan to construct the GPU farm in the first half of next year and start creating the Thai LLM in the second half.

The volume of the generative AI market in Southeast Asia is expected to reach $1.41 billion in 2023 and sharply grow to $7.65 billion by 2030, according to global research firm Statista.

"We expect to contribute to strengthening Thailand's competitiveness in the AI industry through cooperation with Jasmine Group, and furthermore, succeed in breaking ground in the Southeast Asian AI market," KT CEO Kim Young-shub, said. (Yonhap)