KT Corp., a major South Korean mobile carrier, will jointly open an innovation center for research of artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing technologies with Microsoft Corp. next year, the Korean company said Thursday. The establishment of the Innovation Center comes as part of KT and Microsoft's five-year partnership announced last month aimed at co-developing new AI models tailored to the Korean language and culture, as well as new cloud services catering to the needs of Korean corporate customers. As part of the partnership, KT plans to launch a new company specializing in AI transformation (AX) in the first quarter of next year to offer customized service to corporate clients and expand into the global AX market. Additionally, KT and Microsoft will create an AX strategic fund to expand the AX ecosystem in South Korea. KT CEO Kim Young-shub said the company's cooperation with Microsoft will strengthen its competitiveness as a comprehensive AI and IT technology firm and further help South Kor ea make a leap to become a global hub for AI and cloud. "Microsoft also knows the importance of South Korea in the global information and communications industry," Kim said, noting KT has greatly valued the U.S. tech giant's experience and its top-tier capacity in cloud, data and AI. Source: Yonhap News Agency