SK owner Chey Tae-won sees AI creating new value

“Artificial intelligence should be applied not only to raise profit, but also to solve social problems so that it can contribute to keeping a balance between economic and social values,” said SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won at a conference on scientific innovation held at the Chey Institute for Advanced Studies on Jan. 10.

Chey himself is known as a business tycoon who has applied AI technology for problem-solving. In 2018, he said that SK Group created 53 cents worth of social value this way for every dollar of revenue it earned. “We were able to do this after calculating how much impact corporate activity has on society by using AI technology, and by integrating it with other technologies, we were able to create better value and synergy.”

Since 2017, SK Group has been pursuing the Double Bottom Line – pursuing both social and economic value – as its key corporate strategy.

The chairman also said that AI is applicable for areas such as batteries, semiconductors and 5G communication. SK Group is currently involved in all three sectors via SK Innovation, SK hynix and SK Telecom.

“Batteries can replace existing power grids through energy storage systems (ESS), and when renewable energy is integrated with ESS, that can bring change to our entire energy system as we know it,” Chey said. “In other words, we have the tools to generate completely new and different social value.”

Touching on autonomous cars, Chey said 5G can help minimize the lag time, while AI can serve as the brain in the cloud server to cut costs and also improve the traffic flow. However, in order to create significant value, he said AI – currently quite ubiquitous – must be lead in the right direction, and also accurately measured for its benefits.

The Elec is South Korea’s No.1 tech news platform.