On the 4th, Kakao announced a strategic collaboration with OpenAI, a leading artificial intelligence (AI) company, at The Plaza Hotel in Seoul. The meeting was attended by Kakao CEO Shin-ah Jung and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who shared the direction of their partnership.
This marks OpenAI’s first strategic collaboration in Korea. Kakao and OpenAI will focus on making AI services more accessible to users by ▲ enhancing AI services through technical collaboration and ▲ jointly developing new products.
In her keynote speech, Shin-ah Jung stated, “Kakao’s role in this era is to present a ‘personalized AI that understands users best,’ leveraging the capabilities we’ve built over years of being part of the daily lives of many Koreans. By collaborating with OpenAI, which possesses global technological competitiveness, we aim to drive the popularization of AI services through innovative customer experiences.”
Kakao and OpenAI have been discussing collaboration opportunities since September last year, aligned with the shared goal of “popularizing AI services.” As a result, OpenAI’s latest AI technology APIs will be integrated into Kakao’s key services, such as KakaoTalk and Kanana. Additionally, Kakao plans to adopt ChatGPT Enterprise to accelerate its transformation into an “AI-native company.”
This partnership strengthens Kakao’s AI model orchestration strategy, first unveiled at the IF(kakaoAI) developer conference in October last year. The strategy aims to provide users with the best services by leveraging both Kakao’s in-house AI models and external APIs.
Under this strategy, Kakao will utilize OpenAI’s models alongside its own language model for the upcoming Kanana service. Kanana is an AI agent service that helps users build and strengthen relationships by providing context-aware responses in both one-on-one and group conversations. OpenAI’s technology will further enhance this service, delivering one of the best AI experiences to users.
Beyond technical collaboration, the two companies will also co-develop products. The synergy between Kakao, which understands Korean users, and OpenAI, with its global AI expertise, is expected to accelerate the popularization of AI services in the domestic market.
The meeting also featured a fireside chat between Shin-ah Jung and Sam Altman, where they discussed the vision and future direction of their collaboration.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said, “Kakao has a deep understanding of how technology enriches daily life and has consistently delivered innovative experiences to its users. We are excited to bring cutting-edge AI to Kakao’s vast user base and integrate this technology into Kakao’s services to revolutionize how users communicate and connect.”
Shin-ah Jung, CEO of Kakao, added, “We have high expectations for this strategic collaboration with OpenAI, a global leader in AI technology. This partnership will not only advance our orchestration strategy but also serve as a turning point in Kakao’s efforts to bring the future closer.”
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