David Chon, CEO of DMLab, speaks with The Korea Times at the company's office in Seoul, Oct. 6. Korea Times photo by Baek Byung-yeul

Startup seeks to push limits of AI market

By Baek Byung-yeul

DMLab, a local startup specialized in developing artificial intelligence (AI)-based business models, is aiming to captivate the fast-growing industry with its human-like AI avatars, helping people live and work more comfortably and efficiently, according to its CEO.

Though many AI startups in Korea are focused on developing AI-based services that can interact automatically with users, they have the limitation that their business models are based on the Korean language only.

However, DMLab, comprised of multinational employees, is aiming for the English-speaking market, which is significantly bigger in size than the Korean-speaking market. The company has been developing AI services that can interact with English speakers.

"DMLab is a two-year-old AI development company. We are a global company that is in Korea. We have (employees of) seven nationalities working at the company," David Chon, CEO of DMLab, said during a recent interview with The Korea Times at his office in Seoul.

"We are trying to usher in the interactive AI era. To do this, we are developing a human-like AI avatar that can offer business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) solutions. Our initial primary target is the English-speaking market."

Chon is a prominent figure in the local financial market, as he served as the CEO of KDB Asset Management. Asked why he now takes the chief executive role at an AI tech startup, the CEO said he identified the high growth potential of the company as well as the AI industry.

"Initially, I came to do management consulting for the company. When I looked closer, I saw a very unique AI technology at DMLab that I did not see at the big tech companies. This challenge and learning about it are two major motivating factors for me to take on the current role. Also, as I looked ahead at the risks and opportunities in the global economy and markets, I saw how DMLab's technology can play an important role in the interactive AI industry," Chon said.

David Chon, CEO of DMLab, has a conversation with one of the company's AI-based human-like avatars at the company's office in Seoul, Oct. 6. Korea Times photo by Baek Byung-yeul

Chon added that DMLab has developed various human-like AI avatars, such as Kai and Skye. He said that Skye targets the B2B market, and that the technological prowess of its human-like avatars has been proven, as it recently showcased Skye at the Interspeech 2022 AI conference and received positive responses from attendees.

Chon mentioned that the process of developing Skye wasn't easy as they had to create an avatar that can actually interact with humans smoothly.

"Well, simply it is not easy to make Skye. For her to behave like a human, she must see, hear, understand, remember, analyze, speak and move. She has to do this fast and with lightness so that the AI can run on smartphones and laptops. On top of that, we gave a personality to Skye ― she is a Generation MZ and urban American girl. This involves proprietary integration technology. So it is not easy," he said.

"Now that Skye is up and running, we recently showed her to 2,500 AI experts that gathered in Songdo for the major global AI conference Interspeech 2022. Skye was a very big hit! With this validation, we are quickly developing B2B solutions using the AI technology behind Skye."

There are already plenty of virtual characters in the market, but Chon said that Skye and the other avatars of the company can better appeal to its customers because their avatars have strengths in terms of having conversations with humans naturally.

"I think the key is providing a human-like interaction. Whether it is through a dialogue or visual interaction, the more human-like it is, the better. For example, there are many AI-less virtual characters these days. Simply put, they are just graphics-generated characters. You can mimic the interactions, but you cannot really interact with them. I think there is a limit to what these products can do for consumers. Customer service, training, education, assistance, healthcare, physical fitness, entertainment and many other areas of apps become open when you have a fully standalone AI avatar that is trained to take care of these tasks and responsibilities. So yes, Skye is better for these B2B and B2C solutions than a virtual character that is limited to one-way visual interaction," he said.

This image shows DMLab's human-like AI avatar. Screenshot from DMLab's webpage

'Korea needs to break away from its manufacturing mindset'

To be more competitive in the AI industry, Chon said Korea needs to break away from its manufacturing mindset, which puts more importance on how to produce products efficiently by reducing costs and enhancing the selection rate. These days, it is far more important to approach the AI industry with a more strategic mindset.

"Korea's competitiveness in AI industry development is very high. Although it is well positioned, I think there are a couple of issues Korea will need to think about regarding the AI industry's future. The first is that Korea needs to realize that the industrial development of the AI sector will be different from how the manufacturing sector developed here. It is not a physical game but a strategic challenge. How to plan and envision is more important than what and how much," he said.

"Secondly, I hope that Korea creates an AI industry development strategy based on developing AI for its own sake, not based on how AI will 'support' the existing economic assets of Korea."

Chon also predicted that the importance of the AI industry will continue to grow.

"From a very big-picture perspective, true AI and its applications can remove barriers in our society. This is one very powerful result of the technology, which is developing very rapidly. Language, culture, gender, age, nationality, education and wealth are all potential barriers that can be challenged and transformed by fully developing the AI industry. For example, I only speak two languages but what if my AI avatar can speak and understand 10 languages? (With this AI avatar,) I be able to connect and communicate freely through AI with more people around the world than I can currently. This is one small sliver of the potential changes AI can bring," he said.