SK Telecom CEO Ryu Young-sang speaks during an opening keynote at the final showcase of "Prompter Day Seoul 2023" at Dreamplus Gangnam in Seoul, Saturday. (SK Telecom)

SK Telecom said on Monday that it successfully wrapped up its international AI competition, “Prompter Day Seoul 2023,” held in partnership with OpenAI. The event’s theme centered around building AI innovations beneficial to humanity.

The two-day event first had 226 teams proposing concepts leveraging OpenAI's generative AI model. After online qualifiers, 20 of these teams showcased their AI innovations at Dreamplus Gangnam, a shared office space in Seoul on Saturday and Sunday.

The top honors were shared by two teams. The grand prize went team Born to be Prompters, who introduced Glesom, a tool designed to simplify complex sentences for users with challenges such as autism. The first prize went to Team Hyper, who presented Jikimi, a technology that combats voice phishing by analyzing details like the caller's identity and call intent.

"With technology's rapid pace, AI should grow with humanity. Our OpenAI partnership highlights our belief in AI's potential," said Ryu Young-sang, president and CEO of SK Telecom who attended the final showcase for an opening keynote.

The prize pool was 100 million won ($75,000), with the grand prize winner receiving 40 million won. All the prize winners got an additional prize of bypassing the initial application process for SKT Junior Talent roles in future hires.

Judging the event, Jung Seok-geun, head of the global/AI tech business unit at SK Telecom, and James Dyett, OpenAI’s strategic account manager, provided feedback on the feasibility and possible implications of the AI proposals. James Dyett participated remotely.

In a separate discussion, distinguished AI experts such as Oh Hye-yeon, director of AI Research Center at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and Will Saborio, OpenAI's strategic accounts director, shared their perspectives on AI's transformative influence on the global stage.

Both SK Telecom and OpenAI plan to work together to bring some of the competition's standout concepts to the market.

By Moon Joon-hyun (mjh@heraldcorp.com)