South Korean wireless telecommunications operator, SK Telecom (SKT), and the German telecommunications company, Deutsche Telekom, have announced the signing of a Letter of Intent (LOI) to jointly develop a telco-specific Large Language Model (LLM), enabling global telecommunications companies (telcos) to easily and quickly develop generative AI models.
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LOI for Telco-Specific AI
According to the official statement released yesterday, the LOI signing ceremony took place at the SK Seorin Building in Seoul, with key executives from both companies in attendance. This development represents the initial step following discussions held by the Global Telco AI Alliance, which was launched by SKT, Deutsche Telekom, E&, and Singtel in July 2023, and it lays the foundation for their entry into the global market.
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Development Large Language Model
SKT and Deutsche Telekom have announced their plans to collaborate with AI companies like Anthropic (Claude 2) and Meta (Llama2) to co-develop a multilingual large language model (LLM) tailored to the needs of telcos, including German, English, Korean, and more. According to the joint statement, the first version of the telco-specific LLM is scheduled to be unveiled in the first quarter of 2024.
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Telco-Specific LLM
This telco-specific LLM is said to have a higher understanding of telecommunication service-related areas and customers' intentions compared to general LLMs, making it well-suited for customer services, such as AI contact centres. The goal is to support telcos globally, including those in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, in developing flexible generative AI services like AI agents according to their specific environments, ultimately saving time and costs associated with developing large platforms.
Deutsche Telekom stated, "To maximise the use of AI, especially in customer service, we need to adapt existing large language models and train them with our unique data. This will enhance our generative AI tools."
SKT added, "By combining the strengths and capabilities of the two companies in AI technology, platforms, and infrastructure, we expect to empower enterprises in various industries to deliver new and higher value to their customers."
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Co-develop AI Technologies
Both SKT and Deutsche Telekom plan to jointly develop AI platform technologies that telcos can utilise to create generative AI services, reducing both development time and costs. For example, when a telco aims to establish an AI contact centre based on generative AI, it itself will be able to build one that suits their environment more quickly and flexibly.
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AI can also be applied to other areas such as network monitoring and on-site operations to enhance efficiency, leading to cost savings in the medium to long term.
