South Korea’s telecom giant KT Corp. has enhanced its set-top box GiGa Genie with voice-activated artificial intelligence (AI) technology that will help the set-top box users obtain stock information with simple voice commands.

KT announced on Thursday that it will start providing voice-activated stock information via its GiGa Genie from Friday. The service has been prepared in partnership with the country’s major securities firm Mirae Asset Daewoo Co. since April when the two companies signed an agreement to develop the stock service using speech recognition AI technology.

KT plans to add more services that can be activated on voice command including internet banking services. In collaboration with Korea’s first internet-only bank K Bank, the telecom company is preparing to launch the so-called “couch banking” service on September. With this new service, wire transfers and deposit checks would be possible on simple voice commands.

It is also working to make other financial services available in the GiGa Genie set-top box, such as non face-to-face account opening and stock trading, said Lee Pil-jae, head of KT’s GiGa business unit, at a press conference on Thursday.

More applications for GiGa Genie are also coming up. The company said the set-top box will evolve into an Internet of Things hub at home. The device is to underlie the smart home network in the new Lotte Castle apartment in Youngdo, Busan, due to receive residents in August. It will monitor the gas and heat, operate the lights, air-conditioner and robot vacuum, notify the parking location, pay the maintenance fee, check deliveries, and even call elevators, according to the company.

“We’re currently developing technologies to incorporate the GiGa Genie in AI-enhanced apartments and connected cars,” said Baek Kyu-tae, head of KT’s service R&D center.

The GiGa Genie has already attracted over 100,000 users in just five months since its release. “More than 10,000 units have been sold this week alone since its launch in late January,” said a KT official. “Our sales target this year is 500,000 units.”

Along with the stock service, other services have been added to the GiGa Genie including a service that will tell operation hours of various retailers, hospitals and AS centers, “information most frequently searched on the internet,” according to the company. KT’s webtoon platform will also allow its set-top box users to view web cartoons via Internet Protocol TV (IPTV).

By Lim Sung-hyun

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]