South Korea

정지훈 파트너 "CES 2026, AI 유틸리티 시대 서막"

ZD Net Korea | Local Language | News | Jan. 23, 2026 | UndeterminedTech Development/Adoption

At CES 2026, Jihun Jung, founding partner of Asia2G Capital and adjunct professor at DGIST, declared the start of the "AI utility era," marking a shift from AI's flashy performance to practical AI applications that create value. He emphasized that this year’s CES was more focused on B2B rather than consumer markets, noting key exhibition areas such as Hyundai Motor’s presence in the West Hall and humanoid robots in the North Hall, while the traditionally prominent Central Hall saw less attention. Samsung notably opted out of the main exhibition hall and held separate events instead.

Jung identified four major battlegrounds for AI development after 2025: a new computing stack, human-AI interfaces, AI’s expansion into the physical world, and enterprise adoption challenges. He highlighted the growing importance of edge semiconductors amid the transition from inference centered on companies like NVIDIA to broader AI infrastructure. He noted that NVIDIA’s large energy consumption remains problematic compared to Qualcomm and startups like HyperExcel, in which Asia2G has invested.

Regarding future computing devices, Jung pointed to glasses-type devices becoming mainstream around 2029–2030, requiring new operating system and software stacks, with Qualcomm likely providing the standard chips. He critiqued China’s weak OS and software capabilities and predicted Microsoft is at risk due to increasing cloud-based tool adoption, with Google’s ecosystem gaining more prominence among younger users.

Jung observed that AI is extending into physical realms, with autonomous vehicle technology showcased prominently, exemplified by companies such as John Deere in agriculture, Caterpillar in construction, and Brunswick in marine yachts. He noted significant growth in AI and robotics innovation award winners at CES 2025 and 2026. Tesla was described as the "Apple of the physical AI era," with its end-to-end control both a strength and a weakness, while NVIDIA compensates for lacking hardware through partnerships, notably with Hyundai Motor.

The presentation also underscored a strong Hyundai-NVIDIA collaboration, likening it to the Google-Samsung smartphone alliance. Hyundai’s recruitment of former NVIDIA executive Park Min-woo as president overseeing autonomous driving signals deepening ties. Jung downplayed concerns over China’s robotics advances, noting their robots’ limited load capacity compared to Hyundai and Tesla.

Finally, Jung forecasted that AI, semiconductors, robotics, energy, and wearables will converge and drive the metaverse revolution over the next two decades, emphasizing that this multi-technology integration, not any single innovation, will spark transformative change occurring once every 10–20 years.

SKT 'A.X K1', 옴니모달로 진화…“소버린 AI 마중물 될 것”

ET News | Local Language | News | Jan. 23, 2026 | UndeterminedTech Development/Adoption

SK Telecom's ultra-large AI model, A.Dot X (A.X) K1, is advancing into an omnimodal model as part of the second phase of its independent AI foundation model project. This upgrade will enable the model to understand and process speech in real time alongside text and images, aiming to establish leadership in sovereign AI. The A.X K1, already a model with approximately 500 billion parameters, will sequentially incorporate multimodal functions, including voice and image recognition.

Professor Kim Geon-hee of Seoul National University highlighted the transition from multimodal models, which integrate text, photos, and videos, to omnimodal models that also include speech understanding. He emphasized the technical difficulty of implementing real-time voice conversations due to their bidirectional and simultaneous nature, requiring the model to handle interruptions, brief feedback, and emotional nuances. Past approaches using separate speech-to-text and text-to-speech systems faced delays and lost key information, such as breathing and emotional signals.

To address these challenges, recent developments focus on integrated language models capable of processing voice information directly. The core strategy involves fine-tuning a powerful pretrained language model using diverse data, including voice, to achieve comprehensive omnimodal capabilities. SK Telecom aims to deploy these advancements across various services like A.Dot, T map, and B tv, and expects the technology to play a central role in enhancing AI applications in gaming and mobility through partners Krafton and 42dot.

Professor Kim stressed that the success of sovereign AI depends heavily on effective use of national core data sovereignty, which includes largely unstructured data in multiple formats. An omnimodal model allows for direct training and operation of such data without relying on external platforms, thus reinforcing both digital sovereignty and sovereignty over physical infrastructure.

Hankyoreh - E | English | News | Jan. 23, 2026 | North Korea

President Lee Jae Myung condemned the recent incident of a civilian manufacturing and sending a drone into North Korea, calling it "akin to starting a war." During a Cabinet meeting at the Blue House, he emphasized that such actions are unacceptable and likened them to firing a gun towards the North. The individual involved had sent drones on three occasions, prompting Lee to criticize the Ministry of National Defense for inadequate surveillance measures and to demand improved facilities and equipment to prevent hostility and mistrust between the two Koreas. He ordered a thorough investigation into the incident, stating concerns that state agencies might be implicated.

Lee’s comments also aimed to maintain ongoing military efforts to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula, such as the suspension of loudspeaker and radio broadcasts toward North Korea, signaling his intention to hold those responsible accountable without undermining diplomatic measures.

On energy policy, Lee called for rational, ideology-free discussions regarding the construction of new nuclear power plants and small modular reactors. He acknowledged strong public support for nuclear power as essential to addressing electricity needs and urged efforts to minimize political polarization on the issue. These remarks follow previous government officials’ statements emphasizing the inevitability of expanding nuclear power facilities.

Additionally, Lee addressed the importance of media neutrality concerning court decisions, urging adherence to fairness and the public interest, especially in politically sensitive cases where public broadcasts might criticize prosecutors regardless of verdicts.