SK Telecom's A.X K1 AI Transforms Steel & Auto Factories

SK Telecom is deploying its proprietary AI model, A.X K1, in steel and auto parts factories. This marks the first time the model is used in the manufacturing sector. The company signed agreements with KG Steel and KONEC. SK Telecom started developing A.X K1 earlier this year. They collected data from the factories since April and have a demo version of a "manufacturing-specialized AI agent." A.X K1 is a large language model with 519 billion parameters. However, only about 33 billion parameters activate during each inference. This helps it run efficiently in industrial settings. Later this year, the demo agent will be deployed at KG Steel's Dangjin plant and in KONEC's die-casting and machining processes. The manufacturers will share real-time data with SK Telecom to improve the AI. This data will also help train A.X K2, the next-generation model. What's interesting is that A.X K1 supports on-premise deployment. This means the model can run within a company's own infrastructure, keeping sensitive data secure. This development could transform how AI is used in industrial environments.