AJU PRESS ASIA FIRST NEWS AGENCY

Journalist

Kim Ki-eung
  • Naver upgrades AI Cleanbot 3.0 to better block hateful, abusive comments
    Naver upgrades AI Cleanbot 3.0 to better block hateful, abusive comments Naver is tightening controls on hateful comments tied to suicide, death and accidents, saying the move is aimed at fostering a healthier comment environment. The company said April 29 it has completed an upgrade to its abusive-comment detection system, AI Cleanbot 3.0. Under the upgrade, Naver said it will focus on blocking comments that encourage disregard for life, including references to suicide, death and bodily harm, as well as comments that mock, demean or express hatred toward victims of incidents and accidents and their bereaved families. Naver said AI Cleanbot 3.0 has also strengthened detection by factoring in the context of news articles. It analyzes not only user comments but also article headlines and body text to more precisely identify malicious expressions in context. First introduced in 2019, AI Cleanbot has been updated through technical and policy changes to keep pace with new slang and evolving hate expressions. It initially focused on detecting profanity and vulgar language based on abusive keywords, but from 2020 it expanded to identify insulting expressions even without explicit profanity by using sentence context. Naver said it has continued to enhance the system to block sexually offensive expressions, hateful, demeaning or discriminatory remarks, and attempts to evade filters using symbols and characters. The company also said it has worked with related organizations, including reflecting the Korea Internet Self-Governance Organization’s hate-speech self-regulatory policy guidelines introduced in 2023. Kim Su-hyang, a Naver leader, said the company is continuously improving Cleanbot so it can detect not only profanity and vulgar language but also newly emerging hateful, demeaning and discriminatory expressions. She said Naver will intensively block malicious comments that encourage disregard for life or mock victims and bereaved families, while continuing to upgrade the technology by reflecting a range of opinions. * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-29 14:25:11
  • Kakao Adds ‘Share Together’ Feature for KakaoTalk Gift Vouchers
    Kakao Adds ‘Share Together’ Feature for KakaoTalk Gift Vouchers Kakao has launched a “Share Together” feature on KakaoTalk Gift that allows users to use gift vouchers with family members and other contacts. Kakao said April 29 that it added a new “Share Together” tab to the KakaoTalk gift box, enabling vouchers previously stored for individual use to be shared with members of a family account. Previously, sharing a voucher often required taking a screenshot or copying and sending a message. Kakao said the new feature reduces those steps and makes it easier to use vouchers directly within the gift box. To use it, users can create a family account in the “Share Together” tab or join an existing account by invitation. Linked members can view and manage shared vouchers in the gift box without separately sharing images. Members can also check expiration dates and whether a voucher has been used in real time. Notifications are sent when a voucher is used to help prevent duplicate use, Kakao said. Kakao said it plans to expand voucher use from an individual-centered model to a shared experience among family and friends and to continue improving the user experience for the service. A Kakao official said the feature focuses on making vouchers more flexible to use while strengthening connections among members. “We will continue to upgrade the service so users can enjoy a more convenient and richer gift experience,” the official said. * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-29 14:12:19
  • NHN Dooray! Unveils AI Agent to Automate Workflows, Targets Finance Sector Growth
    NHN Dooray! Unveils AI Agent to Automate Workflows, Targets Finance Sector Growth “Generative AI used to talk. Now it acts. If a project is delayed, it finds the work on its own, messages the right people, and summarizes the results and leaves them in the wiki. Dooray AI will be a ‘member’ that works with you, not just a tool,” Baek Chang-yeol, CEO of NHN Dooray, said at a news briefing Tuesday in Pangyo. Baek said collaboration software is shifting from assistance to execution, as companies move beyond simple Q&A to “AI agents” that carry out tasks. NHN Dooray introduced a new “Dooray AI Agent” built into its collaboration platform, Dooray!, and outlined adoption results and its strategy focused on the public and financial sectors. The company launched its subscription-based AI service, DoorayAI, in 2024. Baek said the new agent is a step forward, moving from summarizing email and messenger content to taking actions based on data. He said the agent can automatically detect delayed tasks in a project and notify the person in charge, or capture meeting discussions in real time and turn them into documents. “The agent joins as the same kind of member as a person, entering messenger chats and projects to work alongside employees,” he said. Baek said the capability comes from Dooray’s data structure, which integrates personal tools such as email, messenger and calendars with shared spaces such as projects and wikis, allowing the AI to understand context and act. “For AI to work properly, you need not only personal data but also an organization’s shared data,” he said, calling Dooray’s coverage of both areas a competitive strength. NHN Dooray said revenue in its software-as-a-service business has been growing about 40% a year, and it has maintained the top position in the public sector by number of institutions served. In finance, it said it has secured 25 institutions, including Woori Financial Group and IBK Industrial Bank of Korea. Baek said winning 25 finance references in a year was a result the market would not easily expect from a small organization, and said it showed both service quality and speed of expansion. At the briefing, Woori Financial shared its rollout. Yoon Jong-pil, a deputy general manager in the ICT Planning Department at Woori Financial Holdings, said network-separation environments had made it difficult to use subscription software or generative AI for internal work, which he said went beyond inconvenience and hurt competitiveness. Woori reviewed SaaS-based collaboration tools to address the issue, comparing about 10 solutions, domestic and foreign, before choosing Dooray, Yoon said. He cited price competitiveness, ease of customization, and an all-in-one structure integrating email, messenger and task management. Yoon said usage rose sharply after adoption. Connections that were about 1,600 at the early stage of internal-network deployment in March 2025 have increased to more than 30,000 a month, he said. He added that generative AI use has moved from simple testing to use in actual financial work. “At first, there were many curiosity-driven questions, but now it has become a practical tool that improves productivity,” Yoon said, adding that 88% rated it positively in an employee satisfaction survey. Baek said market conditions are also turning favorable as the Financial Services Commission eases network-separation rules, lowering barriers to SaaS and AI adoption and accelerating cloud transitions in finance. He said approvals used to take significant time, but adoption can now move quickly if security standards are met, calling it an opportunity for Dooray, which he said already meets the standards. NHN Dooray said it plans to make growth in finance a core pillar this year, and it expects financial-sector revenue to grow about sevenfold from a year earlier as more institutions prepare new deployments. “In the end, AI is about how much you can automate and make work more efficient,” Baek said. He said Dooray lowered barriers to AI adoption with a structure that can be deployed with a few clicks, and is now expanding into actual task execution through agents. He added that with results proven in security-sensitive areas such as finance and the public sector, adoption could spread faster. * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-29 11:21:33
  • Naver Launches Beta ‘AI Tab’ to Shift Search Toward Chat-Style Answers
    Naver Launches Beta ‘AI Tab’ to Shift Search Toward Chat-Style Answers Typing into Naver’s search bar, “Recommend a cafe near Seoul Station that’s good to visit with my parents,” produced a conversational list of suggestions a few seconds later. Instead of simply listing links, the service interpreted the request’s context and returned an answer. Naver said Monday it has launched its AI Tab for Naver Plus Membership users. The feature provides customized responses based on a user’s intent and context, and the company plans to expand it to all users and to the mobile main screen in the first half of the year. Unlike traditional keyword search that displays a results list, AI Tab is built as a chat-style exchange. In testing, it showed an on-screen workflow — “answer planning → information search → answer generation → summary” — and took about five seconds to analyze and produce a response. The recommendations differed from simple popularity rankings. For the “good with parents” condition, it suggested places based on factors such as spacing between seats, store atmosphere and accessibility, and attached a summarized digest of visitor reviews to each listing. The review summaries focused mainly on recent posts written from February through April, the company said. AI Tab generates answers using Naver’s own services, including Place, blogs and cafes, and draws heavily on detailed visitor reviews to produce results. The report also compared the feature with “Gemini in Chrome.” For the same query, Google drew on a wide range of outside sources such as blogs, social media and travel platforms, but some results cited 2024 posts, raising limits on timeliness. Naver’s internal tests reportedly reached a similar conclusion: It may be difficult to claim a clear edge over global AI for general questions, but the company sees stronger competitiveness in local services such as finding places and making reservations, supported by links to its existing platforms. Naver is positioning AI Tab as more than an added feature, calling it a “shift in the search paradigm.” The company aims to move beyond keyword-based search by combining AI with separate services — including shopping, maps and finance — into a single integrated experience. It plans to expand use by connecting domain-specific AI agents, including for shopping and finance, to AI Tab. The service is currently a beta limited to membership users, with constraints on features and access. Naver said it will incorporate user feedback to improve response speed and deliver more precise answers to complex, multi-step follow-up questions. * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-28 15:42:47
  • T map Launches ‘Open Profile’ to Let Users Share Reviews and Saved Places
    T map Launches ‘Open Profile’ to Let Users Share Reviews and Saved Places T map Mobility has introduced an “Open Profile” feature that lets users share information with one another. The company said April 28 that the new tool in the T map app allows users to bundle their reviews and saved places into a single profile and share it with other users. Open Profile can be set up in the app’s “MY” tab. Users can add a profile photo and nickname and link external social media accounts to build a personal profile. Saved places are managed as “saved groups,” allowing users to create and share themed lists. Each group can be set to public, limited, or private. Public lists can be viewed by other users, while limited lists are accessible via a link. Other users’ Open Profiles can be viewed through a review writer’s profile, and public saved groups can be added to a user’s own lists. T map Mobility said it aims to broaden user-to-user sharing and increase the amount of data people can reference when searching for places. To mark the launch, the company is running an event through next month’s 6, awarding T map points to users who create a new profile or set a saved group to public. Jeon Chang-geun, T map Mobility’s chief product officer, said the core of Open Profile is that “users’ preferences and travel experiences are naturally shared, creating new discovery and connections,” adding that the company will “continue to strengthen social features based on user participation.” * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-28 09:09:24
  • Naver Launches Beta of AI Search ‘AI Tab’ for Naver Plus Members
    Naver Launches Beta of AI Search ‘AI Tab’ for Naver Plus Members Naver has launched a beta version of its artificial intelligence search service, “AI Tab,” for Naver Plus membership users. The company said April 28 that AI Tab is available from Naver’s PC main search bar, below AI Briefing, and in integrated search results for Shopping and Place. Naver plans to expand access to all users in the first half of this year. AI Tab is a conversational AI search service designed to reflect a user’s intent and context and allow continued exploration through follow-up questions. Naver said the service is built to handle a wide range of queries, from everyday questions to searches with multiple conditions. It cited examples such as asking what to do with a girlfriend tomorrow, or requesting a recommendation in Gangnam for a cafe suitable for studying that has power outlets, spacious seating and many reviews mentioning those features. Users can refine results with additional questions. Naver also said it strengthened links across its services — including integrated search, Shopping, Place, Blog and Cafe — to reduce the need to switch between services and to show related information on a single screen. The company said it combined user-generated content and service data accumulated on its platform to improve search efficiency. For example, when a user asks for a “good date cafe near Hwadam Forest with a great view,” AI Tab provides results by combining Place information, visitor reviews and blog content, Naver said. Users can proceed from viewing details to making reservations on a PC screen. During the beta period, Naver said it will use user feedback to improve response speed and answer accuracy and to enhance performance for complex queries. It also plans to strengthen multimodal search this year by linking AI Tab with Smart Lens. * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-28 08:15:17
  • Socar Offers Tesla FSD Subscription Service in Seoul, Starting at 1.49 Million Won a Week
    Socar Offers Tesla FSD Subscription Service in Seoul, Starting at 1.49 Million Won a Week Socar has unveiled a vehicle subscription service offering Tesla cars equipped with the company’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) feature and showcased it through a city driving demonstration.  Socar on the 27th held an FSD test-ride event for reporters around the Seongsu and Seoul Forest D Tower area in Seoul. After a destination was set, the vehicle drove itself for parts of the route. The course covered about 4 kilometers round trip and took roughly 25 minutes. The FSD function activated only after the driver fastened a seat belt. During the drive, basic assistance functions such as lane keeping, traffic-signal recognition and intersection handling operated steadily, but sudden situations required immediate driver intervention.  The demonstration took place amid Seongsu’s mix of narrow streets and major roads, though the run was conducted mainly on larger roads with fewer variables. The vehicle maintained lanes, recognized signals and passed through intersections while keeping the overall flow of traffic. Differences by driving mode were also noted. FSD offers styles ranging from “Sloth” to “Mad Max,” and the two extremes were compared during the event. Overall patterns were not sharply different, but “Mad Max” accelerated more quickly when pulling away after stops. A Socar subscription business team manager riding in the car described the adjustment process based on personal use. “During the rollout, I tried the FSD function for about 200 kilometers, and it took a few days to get fully used to it,” the manager said. “Depending on a person’s understanding and tendencies, the speed of building trust varies widely.” “At first, you think a lot about when to intervene,” the manager added. “But once you have enough experience, you start to distinguish what the system can handle and when the driver needs to step in.” Socar recently introduced Tesla Model X and Tesla Model S vehicles equipped with supervised FSD and is operating them through its weekly and monthly subscription service, “Socar Subscription.” Three Tesla models are included in the lineup. Pricing is 1.49 million won per week and 3.99 million won per month. Socar said the service avoids upfront costs such as acquisition tax that come with purchasing a vehicle, and it is targeting young professionals who feel burdened by one-time purchases of high-priced cars. Socar said its decision to offer Tesla FSD through a subscription model is tied to its longer-term vision for autonomous driving services. It described “edge case” data — unexpected situations such as sudden pedestrian entry or vehicles cutting in — as central to improving autonomous-driving AI, with the breadth of such learning shaping technical maturity. Jang Hyeok, head of Socar’s Future Mobility TF, said, “The only companies in the world that have secured edge-case data at this scale are Tesla and Socar.” Socar said it secures more than 40,000 cases of accident and driving data annually, totaling about 220,000 cases cumulatively. To obtain more advanced data, Socar said it is testing one full sensor-kit vehicle equipped with LiDAR, seven cameras, and GPS·IMU. It plans to expand that fleet step by step to as many as 1,000 vehicles to improve the quality of autonomous-driving training data.  2026-04-27 17:22:20
  • Sony Raises PS5 Prices in South Korea as Memory Costs Surge
    Sony Raises PS5 Prices in South Korea as Memory Costs Surge Surging semiconductor demand tied to the spread of artificial intelligence has driven memory prices sharply higher, prompting a steep increase in Sony's PlayStation 5 console prices in South Korea. The so-called “chipflation” is spreading across consumer IT devices. Sony Interactive Entertainment Korea said on the 27th it will raise PS5 prices in the Korean market, with the new prices taking effect May 1. The PS5 Digital Edition will rise 43.48% to 858,000 won from 598,000 won. The PS5 Disc Edition, which supports physical discs, will increase 26.74% to 948,000 won from 748,000 won. The higher-end PS5 Pro will climb 16.1% to 1,298,000 won from 1,118,000 won. The adjustment follows moves in other markets. Earlier this month, Sony Interactive Entertainment raised PS5 prices by about $100 in major markets including the United States. At the time, SIE Vice President Isabelle Tomatis said, “Amid continued cost pressure across the global economic environment, a price adjustment was unavoidable.” Industry officials point to structural shifts in the memory-chip market. As demand for AI servers jumps, chipmakers are focusing production on high-bandwidth memory and higher-capacity products, while supplies of consumer DRAM and NAND flash are tightening, analysts say. Memory prices have been rising quickly. Counterpoint Research said first-quarter DRAM prices jumped more than 50% and NAND flash more than 90%. TrendForce forecast additional second-quarter increases of 90% to 95% for DRAM and 55% to 60% for NAND flash from the previous quarter. The trend is extending beyond game consoles. Prices for laptops and smartphones, which also rely heavily on memory components, are rising as well. Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics have recently raised laptop prices by as much as nearly 1 million won compared with previous models, and new smartphone launch prices are also moving higher. * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-27 16:28:09
  • Shift Up’s ‘Goddess of Victory: Nikke’ tops Google Play revenue in South Korea and Japan after 3.5-year update
    Shift Up’s ‘Goddess of Victory: Nikke’ tops Google Play revenue in South Korea and Japan after 3.5-year update Shift Up’s “Goddess of Victory: Nikke” has continued to post No. 1 revenue rankings on major app marketplaces at home and abroad with each major update, reinforcing its position as a long-running hit intellectual property, the company said. Shift Up said on the 27th that on the day of its 3.5-year anniversary update, the game ranked No. 1 in revenue on South Korea’s App Store and has since maintained the No. 1 revenue spot on Google Play in both South Korea and Japan. The company attributed the performance to content management built on story development accumulated over the service period, along with high-quality in-game content aligned with the update’s main “idol concept” theme. During the same period, Nikke stayed within the top 10 in revenue in Taiwan and continued steady results in other major markets globally, including North America. With each major update, Nikke has reclaimed top revenue rankings and has been positioned as a leading long-running South Korean subculture game IP. The title combines character collection with gun-shooting gameplay and has built a global fan base with polished content, an immersive story, and music. For the 3.5-year update, the game released an event story titled “STAR ANIS,” centered on the popular early character “Anis.” Additional content includes a 3D visual performance, a special animation and full voice dubbing, drawing strong user response. Shift Up director Yoo Hyeong-seok said, “As we have prepared the 3.5-year update for a long time, we are deeply grateful for users’ enthusiastic response,” adding, “We will continue working to showcase Nikke’s unique appeal.” * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-27 09:52:03
  • Ulsan Factories Turn to AI-Driven Autonomous Manufacturing as Workers Decline
    Ulsan Factories Turn to AI-Driven Autonomous Manufacturing as Workers Decline South Korea’s manufacturing sector is accelerating a shift in how it produces goods as it faces structural pressures from a shrinking and aging workforce. In Ulsan, the shipbuilding and petrochemical industries are pursuing artificial intelligence transformation, or AX, to address different challenges, driving broader change across industrial complexes. As of April 26, industry officials said the Ulsan Mipo National Industrial Complex is expanding AX adoption to respond to labor shortages and to reduce safety and process risks. In shipbuilding at Ulsan Mipo, the central issue is gaps on the production floor. The share of manufacturing workers fell to a record low of 15.2% last year, and the number of people employed in the sector has declined for three straight years. With the share of workers age 55 and older rising quickly, the industry expects a major outflow of core skilled labor within the next five to 10 years. Because shipbuilding processes have long relied on veteran know-how, companies worry the shift could directly hurt productivity and widen quality variation. In response, shipyards are increasingly adopting “autonomous manufacturing,” using process data to predict quality and automatically control equipment settings. The goal goes beyond basic automation, moving toward systems in which AI analyzes operating conditions and supports decision-making, reducing dependence on scarce labor. On-site efforts are focusing on expanding process optimization and automatic control based on equipment operating data. Manufacturing AI solution providers are also increasing deployments. Miracom I&C said its MES-based “Nexplant MESplus” integrates manufacturing data and enables AI to analyze and make judgments on factory operations. LS TiraYutek has proposed an integrated operating model that links workers, equipment and robots through AI to raise the level of unmanned operations. In petrochemicals, where safety is the top priority, work is underway to standardize process data and build AI-based analytics under the “AX demonstration industrial complex construction project.” Demonstrations are being pursued for 12 AI services across process, equipment and safety at an Ulsan pilot plant that concentrates refining and petrochemical operations, with the aim of expanding to companies including KPX Chemical. A key technology is MIQube Solution’s “digital twin modeler.” It organizes plant equipment data based on the international AAS standard, allowing AI to recognize the information and recreate the factory in a virtual space. The approach can simulate process abnormalities in advance and derive optimal operating conditions. A “safety AI agent” combining a large language model with retrieval-augmented generation, or RAG, is also set to be introduced. If a worker asks, “What are the risk factors under the current pressure conditions?” the AI would provide real-time guidance based on manuals and accident data. The technologies are expected to shift into cloud-based software-as-a-service offerings and spread to small and midsize manufacturers. The government is also supporting broader AX adoption through measures including GPU infrastructure support and the creation of manufacturing AI centers.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-27 08:00:17