[Journalism Internship] Corporation look to ChatGPT to get ahead

JIHOO KIM, YUJU HWANG, JUNGWON BAE, CHAN LIM

Ten months have passed since the ChatGPT storm has rocked the tech world, and Korean companies have been gearing up to get ahead in the AI race.

ChatGPT is an AI-powered language model that was developed by OpenAI, a U.S. artificial intelligence development company, on Nov. 30, 2022. ChatGPT can generate natural language text and facilitate conversational interactions with humans through a two-stage development process: pre-training, which imparts language understanding from extensive data, and fine-tuning, which is tailored for specific tasks with curated data and human feedback.

Since its launch, ChatGPT has transformed customer services, revolutionized language translation, enhanced virtual companionship, and streamlined content creation. Students in particular have been using ChatGPT for essays, according to Oh Sun-kyung, a professor at the General Education Institute at Korea University.

Students utilize the chatbot when asking questions about and researching their subject. A survey conducted by the Education Development Center at Sungkyunkwan University on 800 students shows that 69.8 percent used ChatGPT to “understand difficult subject matter,” 64.6 percent of students used ChatGPT to “research for reports or assignments,” and 43.1 percent of students used ChatGPT to “solve programming assignments.”
Korean companies are responding to ChatGPT's development in various ways, with some viewing it as an opportunity for integration while others express concerns about its reliability.

The ability of ChatGPT to offer quick and relevant information and data is accepted as a sparking innovation in various industries. ChatGPT is viewed as beneficial due to its wider range of datasets compared to other AI chatbots, making domestic companies actively embrace a symbiotic relationship with ChatGPT. Recently, companies that have adopted ChatGPT are circumventing security concerns by utilizing company-specific ChatGPT models.
To successfully deal with the challenges posed by ChatGPT, some Korean companies collaborate with ChatGPT – namely LG, SK Telecom, POSCO, and Samsung – as they recognize the AI’s potential to transform existing technologies and opt to use the technology to refine their own services.

Each of the companies aim to leverage ChatGPT or similar AI tools to improve its services, be it in telecom, IT, steel-making, or electronics. ChatGPT can be used to power chatbots and virtual assistants, offering instant, accurate, and round-the-clock customer support. This can significantly improve customer satisfaction and reduce the need for extensive human intervention.

POSCO, a steel-making company in Korea, has integrated ChatGPT into its “Teams” platform, which provides various work tools, such as sharing document work and data analysis, to enhance employee communication and productivity. POSCO's move, facilitated by its Digital Innovation team, aims to provide cutting-edge tools for employees while also addressing data security concerns.

Samsung SDS also uses the chatbot, specifically for its natural language processing technology to get accurate information about rules and procedures in structures and to classify order sheets by customized groups.

The AI-based document recognition function converts documents received as images into text. If there are anomalies, such as missing or erroneous information, it requests verification from the person in charge through a chatbot. Chatbots can also help employees with questions that executives and staff commonly have concerning year-end settlements, buying practices, and personnel rules.

However, there are issues concerning ChatGPT’s privacy protection that have led other domestic companies to develop their very own technologies, instead of partnering up. As any data inserted into ChatGPT is collected and can be viewed by OpenAI systems, many have worried about potential data leakage, leading companies such as Apple, JP Morgan, Verizon, and Amazon to place a ban on the use of ChatGPT.

Industries in Korea also addressed the potential problem in the usage of ChatGPT by indicating its limitation in knowledge about Korea-specific issues. This resulted in diverse responses, such as developing a system that solely responds in Korean based on data collected from Korea.

Even ChatGPT is aware of its shortcomings.

When asked what its defects are, ChatGPT answered that “while having an extensive database up until September 2021, [ChatGPT] lacks real-time awareness and the capability to access the internet on the fly.”

“Additionally, it often interprets queries too literally, which can lead to answers that, while technically correct, might not align with user intent,” the chatbot said. “Despite its prowess, ChatGPT doesn't possess human emotions, making it challenging to understand context in the same way humans do. Besides, there are more defects of ChatGPT such as its potential for bias, over-reliance on training data, and lack of genuine creativity.”

Tech companies like Samsung Electronics have restricted the use of AI tools like ChatGPT due to fears of data leakage. Samsung temporarily banned ChatGPT from internal networks and devices due to cases in which Samsung employees inadvertently leaked sensitive information. While Samsung is actively working on in-house generative AI systems, LG Electronics has chosen to develop its chatbot, L-Genie, to ensure data privacy. While Samsung is actively working on in-house generative AI systems, LG Electronics decided to develop its chatbot, L-Genie, to ensure data privacy. Meanwhile, SK Hynix has banned artificial intelligence chatbot services altogether.

Prof. Lee Sang-kyun from Korea University's School of Cybersecurity stresses the need for long-term solutions beyond bans, advocating strong guidelines and education to balance harnessing the efficiency of AI and protecting sensitive data.

Korea is developing generative AI technology beyond simply listing information. AI developed in Korea has great potential, especially for its more natural use of the Korean language. Compared to U.S. big techs, Korean companies have less capital and smaller datasets but still aim to develop conversational AI.

Korea's AI models have much more learning Korean data than foreign AI, so Koreans may find domestic AI models more useful than ChatGPT. Domestic tech company Naver introduced its own AI named Hyper Clova X on Aug. 24, which understood the Korean language and culture well and learned 6,500 times more Korean materials than ChatGPT-3.5. HyperClova X offers four services: Clova X, Q, Project Connect X, and Clova Studios.

BY JIHOO KIM, YUJU HWANG, JUNGWON BAE, CHAN LIM [jhkim25@kis.ac, yjhwang25@kis.ac, jwbae25@kis.ac, clim26@kis.ac]