IBM Watson shows high concordance with physician recommendations: hospital

IBM Inc.'s artificial intelligence-based Watson for Oncology was concordant with more than 50 percent of doctors' recommendations, a South Korean medical center said Tuesday.Watson for Oncology is designed to assist doctors in making more informed treatment decisions by analyzing a patient's medical information against a vast array of data and expertise to provide evidence-based treatment options.Gachon University Gil Medical Center in Incheon, a port city just west of Seoul, employed Watson las

Dec. 5, 2017

[Health-tech Korea] ‘Fever Coach’ eyes data-driven flu forecasting

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of articles highlighting South Korea’s promising startups in the emerging sectors of digital health care and next-generation medical devices. This is the 14th installment. — Ed.For those new to parenting, an infant with a high fever can be extremely startling. 　Not knowing what to do, many turn to the web to seek advice on how to manage their child’s fever. An online search can yield long lists of medical advice, tips and opinions -- some credible and some

Dec. 5, 2017

Human-machine conversation possible in 5 yrs: Google

Mastering the human language remains a challenge for computers, but artificial intelligence technology is forecast to make it possible for people to converse with machines in five years, Google Inc. said Tuesday."We are applying Natural Language Processing technology to allow machines to have conversations with humans," Hadar Shemtov, an engineer at Google's search quality team, told reporters in Seoul through a video conference.NLP is a field of computer science, AI and computational linguistic

Dec. 5, 2017

Samsung mass produces world’s largest embedded storage solution

Samsung Electronics on Tuesday announced that it has begun the mass production of the industry’s first 512-gigabyte embedded Universal Flash Storage solution for use in next-generation mobile devices, using the firm’s latest 64-layer 512-gigabit V-NAND chips. Consisting of eight 64-layer 512-gigabit V-NAND chips and a controller chip all stacked together, the new 512-gigabyte eUFS doubles the density of Samsung’s previous 48-layer V-NAND-based 256-gigabyte eUFS, in the same amount of space as th

Dec. 5, 2017

Korea to use AI to better combat money laundering

South Korea's top financial regulator said Tuesday it will use artificial intelligence technology to automate some of the nation's probe systems against money laundering. Kim Yong-beom, vice chairman of the Financial Services Commission, said it will start building the anti-money laundering compliance system using AI next year. "We will build an information analysis system using AI, starting in 2018," Kim told a meeting of the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering in Seoul. "That would help us

Dec. 5, 2017

Korea ranks No. 7 in per capita mobile data usage last year: report

South Korea ranked seventh in the world in terms of per capita mobile data usage last year among 41 major economies checked, a report said Tuesday.The average South Korean used 4.6 gigabytes per month in 2016, according to the Digital Fuel Monitor report by Rewheel, a Finnish management consulting firm, based on a survey of 187 carriers.Finland topped the list with 16.1 GB, followed by Latvia at 6.4 GB, Austria at 5.5 GB, Denmark and Sweden at 5.4 GB each, and Estonia at 5.1 GB. Japan came in ei

Dec. 5, 2017

[Newsmaker] SKT under investigation for tampering with Olympic broadcasting cable

SK Telecom is facing a police investigation for damaging cable ducts installed by its domestic rival KT for the broadcasting system of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics, which kicks off on Feb. 9. According to police and KT on Monday, four employees of SK Telecom and its contractor allegedly damaged three cable ducts installed underground in Daegwanryeong in PyeongChang, Gangwon Province, for use by the International Broadcasting Center, a temporary hub for broadcasters during the event. KT i

Dec. 4, 2017

Naver makes first investment in audio content tech

South Korean internet giant Naver said Monday that it will make its first investment in a new audio content archival project via the joint fund that it formed with local venture investment firm KTB Network earlier this year.In May, the two companies created the 30 billion won ($27.53 million) Naver-KTB Audio Content Investment Fund to invest in promising audio content technologies that form the basis of artificial intelligence-powered products such as voice-activated smart speakers and connected

Dec. 4, 2017

[News Focus] Can Korea effectively investigate Google’s covert data collection?

South Korea has become one of the first countries to start questioning Google over recent reports confirming the firm has been collecting location data from Android phones even when GPS services were disabled. But will it be able to investigate with effective consequences?Experts here say that it is unclear whether Korean regulators can properly interrogate Google, as well as take punitive measures if needed, given the difficulties of investigating a foreign IT company whose servers and key exec

Nov. 30, 2017

Biggest Supermoon of year to light up Seoul sky this weekend

The biggest supermoon of this year is set to brighten up Seoul sky around midnight on Sunday, a state-run maritime research agency said Wednesday.According to Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, the best time to see the astronomical event is 0:47 a.m. on Monday, when the moon will appear at its largest for skygazers in Seoul. The supermoon phenomenon will be observed at different times across the earth.The upcoming lunar show will mark the fourth occasion and the largest scale this year

Nov. 29, 2017

KAIST to host ‘AI World Cup’ in Korea

South Korea’s leading science and technology research university KAIST said Wednesday that it will host an “AI World Cup” in which teams of artificially intelligent robots compete in a miniature soccer tournament.　The AI soccer tournament, which the university says will be the first of its kind to take place internationally, will be held Friday at the KI Building in Daejeon. Teams of five bots employing AI-based machine learning algorithms including Q-Learning -- a reinforcement learning techniq

Nov. 29, 2017

Artificial intelligence should be better harnessed, not feared: chief Google engineer

Recent advancements in artificial intelligence technologies combined with countless sci-fi films depicting worlds where machines take over humanity have stoked continued fears about a future driven by AI.While debate persists over the kind of benefits, or destruction, artificial could bring, one of Google’s chief AI technology experts says the current fears are irrational, and the main focus now should be to build better systems with wider applicative value.“The long-term fears (of artificial in

Nov. 29, 2017

[Reshaping Semicon Map] Chip industry sees new opportunities with IoT

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of articles dissecting the status and plans of South Korea’s leading semiconductor businesses that are shifting the shape of the global market. This is the fifth installment. -- Ed.The upcoming era of the Internet of Things is forecast to require a high level of collaboration among chipmakers, software developers and device manufacturers, according to the head of Arm Korea, a computing chip intellectual property company based in Seoul. To connect objects a

Nov. 28, 2017

Google aims to use AI to benefit everyone

Google Inc. aims to make artificial intelligence technology more available so it can benefit everyone, the company's engineers said Tuesday."Our goals are to make Google products more useful, help businesses and developers innovate, and provide researchers with tools to tackle humanity's big challenges," Jeff Dean, head of the Google Brain Team, told reporters.The remarks were made during an annual conference held in Tokyo for the Asia-Pacific region to publicize the team's outcome and to give a

Nov. 28, 2017

Samsung narrows gap with Apple in Q3 smartphone sales

Samsung Electronics Co. narrowed the gap with US tech giant Apple Inc. in terms of smartphone sales in the third quarter, data showed Tuesday, with the South Korean player maintaining a lead in shipments.According to the data compiled by Strategy Analytics, Apple accounted for 32 percent of the industry's combined revenue in the July-September period, compared with Samsung's share of 23.1 percent. The 8.9 percentage-point gap marks a drop from 15.5 percentage points posted in the third quarter o

Nov. 28, 2017

ICT ministry to construct SW job models

The ICT ministry said Monday that it will construct models to predict how the fourth industrial revolution would change software jobs in the future.   The Ministry of Science and ICT said the revolution is radically shifting the economic landscape and changing the nature of jobs that require policymakers to face challenges in human resources development and job creation in the software sector.     "It is necessary to provide the right job training and education by predicting future jobs in order

Nov. 27, 2017

Ybrain’s depression-targeting headband qualifies for Europe sales

South Korean medical technology startup Ybrain said Monday that its depression-targeting headband wearable, Mindd, has obtained quality certification and marketing approval in Europe.Developed exclusively by Ybrain, Mindd is a headband that sends weak electric currents to the frontal lobe, stimulating the region of the brain whose decreased activity is associated with depression. As a portable device, it allows patients to treat depression outside the hospital, including at home and other places

Nov. 27, 2017

Samsung likely to adopt LG Display’s LCD TV panels: sources

Samsung Electronics is likely to adopt liquid-crystal display panels manufactured by LG Display in its TVs that are slated for launch early next year, according to news reports and industry sources Monday. If the two South Korean tech giants reach an agreement in the ongoing negotiations, it will be the first case of Samsung using panels manufactured by a rival. According to a news report, the two sides are expected to reach an agreement in the near future, with the aim of unveiling the first “c

Nov. 27, 2017

Seoul out to curb ride discrimination by Kakao Taxi drivers

The Seoul Metropolitan Government and South Korea’s dominant taxi-hailing app Kakao Taxi on Monday announced a new set of policies aimed at discouraging drivers from selectively accepting only customers requesting long-distance rides.　　The move comes as part of the municipality’s latest efforts to address complaints that drivers using Kakao Taxi -- who receive alerts from passengers who have requested travel to a specified destination -- deliberately avoid picking up those who request shorter-di

Nov. 27, 2017