Seoul: SK Telecom, a leading South Korean mobile operator, said on Thursday it will invest $10 million in US artificial intelligence (AI) startup Perplexity to collaborate on AI search services.
According to the Korean company, Perplexity also plans to invest in the Global AI Platform, an artificial intelligence services division being developed at SK Telecom’s Silicon Valley division.
However, it did not provide detailed information about the financial conditions of the American side, Yonhap news agency reports.
SK Telecom and Perplexity signed a strategic partnership at the Mobile World Congress in February to strengthen collaboration in the AI search industry.
Through cross-investment, Perplexity plans to support SK Telecom develop an AI search engine for its AI personal assistant service, which the Korean company is currently developing for the global market, as well as its existing A service.
To support this collaboration, SK Telecom will provide Perplexity with Korean-language data and cultural content to support the startup refine its vast language model and improve its search solution.
Perplexity is considered a challenge to Google, the world’s largest search engine, because it uses generative artificial intelligence models to quickly answer user queries and provide sources of information.
“Based on the cooperation between the two companies, we plan to strengthen A.’s search capabilities and provide world-class AI personal assistant service,” said Lee Jae-shin, director of global business development at SK Telecom.
Meanwhile, the Korean company announced that it plans to provide its subscribers with the paid version of the Perplexity search engine for free for a year.
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