SK Telecom (SKT) is making significant investments in the generative AI search engine field, which has captured the attention of major global tech companies, and is pushing for robust business collaboration. The enhancement of SKT’s AI personal assistant service is highly anticipated in the future.

On the 13th, SK Telecom announced that it has invested $10 million in Perplexity, a generative AI search engine startup that is emerging as a competitor to Google, and that both companies will further solidify their business collaboration in this domain.

Additionally, Perplexity has agreed to invest in SKT’s Global AI Platform Corporation (GAP Co.), established in Silicon Valley last year. GAP Co. is SKT’s main body for developing global AI services, and together with Perplexity, they will jointly develop AI search services.

The two companies signed a strategic partnership for AI search engine collaboration at MWC 2024 held in Barcelona last February, and now, through mutual investments, they can look forward to sustainable AI business synergies.

Perplexity is a US startup that provides conversational AI search services based on large language models (LLMs). It has gained attention as a rival to Google and has received investments from notable figures like Nvidia and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. The company has established itself as a leader in the US generative AI search industry, processing over 230 million search requests monthly worldwide. In May of this year, Perplexity ranked first in the chatbot usability evaluation published by The Wall Street Journal.

SKT anticipates that generative AI-based searches will gradually replace the traditional keyword search market.

Perplexity plans to collaborate in enhancing the generative AI-based search engine that will be deployed in SKT’s AI assistant ‘A.(A Dot)’ and other global personal assistant services currently in development.

SKT will provide Korean data and cultural content, while both parties have agreed on comprehensive joint development to enhance Korea’s search performance through LLM fine-tuning and search solution upgrades.

Perplexity’s generative AI search engine is characterized by its short delay in finding answers after a search and the provision of accurate source information. Unlike traditional keyword searches, it allows users to search in a conversational manner and delivers various results, including quotes, images, and graphs relevant to the answers.

For instance, if a user inputs a question like, “Compare the skills of Ronaldo and Messi,” the AI summarizes all necessary information like historic team records, award counts, and scoring stats to present the most fitting result. This process alleviates the need for users to sift through multiple links to find the desired outcome.

Furthermore, it provides sources for answers, such as news articles, YouTube videos, and blog posts, thereby mitigating one of the main issues with generative AI known as ‘hallucination’.

Additionally, it displays a list of follow-up questions that aid in further detailed information exploration. Another strength of Perplexity is its quick translation and summarization capability when only an English article link is provided.

SKT expects that by integrating a search engine into its AI personal assistant platform, it will be able to perform extensive functions such as conversational inquiries, summarizing search results, suggesting related keywords, and translating and summarizing English texts.

Through this investment, SKT has become the sole domestic telecom provider to offer the Perplexity service to local customers.

Moreover, SKT plans to offer its customers a year of free subscription to the paid search service ‘Perplexity Pro’. The companies will also be pursuing joint marketing through various channels such as SKT’s A.DOT, T-universe, and T-membership.

Dmitry Shevelenko, Perplexity’s Chief Business Officer (CBO), stated, “Both companies share a vision of providing top-tier AI services that enrich our lives,” expressing his excitement over the opportunity to offer the Perplexity Pro service to SKT customers through this partnership. He added, “Our partnership with a telecom provider at the forefront of customer daily life will be a key factor in Perplexity’s growth strategy, and we hope this collaboration with SKT will continue long-term as a pioneering example of cooperation with global telecom companies.”

Lee Jae-shin, Vice President in charge of AI growth strategies at SKT, commented, “Through this investment cooperation with Perplexity, we have secured our global competitiveness in the AI search engine market,” adding, “Based on our strong cooperation, we plan to enhance A.DOT’s search capabilities and launch a top-tier AI personal assistant service both domestically and internationally.”

By Sangjin Lee daedusj@autodiary.kr