SK Telecom is joining hands with the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Science and ICT to push a defense artificial intelligence transition. As the first case of applying the independent AI foundation model project promoted by the Ministry of Science and ICT to the defense sector, the plan is to accelerate the spread of the K-AI ecosystem through cooperation among the private sector, government, and military.
SK Telecom said on the 14th that it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of National Defense at SKT Tower headquarters on Euljiro in Jung-gu, Seoul, for "Ministry of Science and ICT independent AI foundation model project use in the defense sector." The signing ceremony was attended by Kim Myung-guk, SK Telecom Industrial AI head, and Jeon Jun-beom, Ministry of National Defense Defense Artificial Intelligence Planning Director.
The two sides agreed to cooperate on developing and piloting a defense-specialized AI model based on the independent AI foundation model project. They will also pursue ways to collect, provide, and use open data in the defense sector and support GPU use in connection with national AI projects. SK Telecom expects the partnership to improve the efficiency of defense administrative work.
The agreement is a follow-up to the Ministry of Science and ICT's independent AI foundation model project. SK Telecom's elite team advanced to phase two of the independent AI foundation model project in Jan. with "A.X K1," a 519B-class ultra-large AI model that surpassed 50 billion parameters for the first time in the country. The collaboration is meaningful in that it goes beyond model development to verify the potential for real use in the public and security sectors.
SK Telecom will lead development of a defense-specialized AI model based on its large language model capabilities and GPU-as-a-service infrastructure. It plans to apply lightweighting technology to A.X K1 and K2 to reduce model size and increase processing speed, then further train on defense data to implement an AI model suited to defense environments.
The defense sector has high levels of classified information and security requirements, making it difficult to use off-the-shelf AI models from overseas big tech as is. As it needs to build an AI system controllable with domestic technology while reducing cross-border data transfer or reliance on external clouds, it is cited as an area with strong demand for "sovereign AI." Observers also say the collaboration could spread to security-sensitive industries such as finance, manufacturing, healthcare, and the public sector.
The Ministry of National Defense will, in the second quarter of this year, provide SK Telecom with GPU resources secured through the Ministry of Science and ICT's national AI project. SK Telecom will use them to push high-performance AI model development and pilots and plans to strengthen a cooperation system based on national research and development infrastructure.