Journalist

Baek Seo-hyun
  • CJ ENM Unveils AI-Assisted Feature Film, Says Costs and Time Cut Up to Sevenfold
    CJ ENM Unveils AI-Assisted Feature Film, Says Costs and Time Cut Up to Sevenfold “Watching a shot that wouldn’t come together for days get solved at once with AI made me realize how important technology is in content production.” Jung Chang-ik, head of CJ ENM’s AI Studio team, made the remarks April 30 at the “CJ ENM 2026 AI Culture Talk” event at CGV Yongsan I’Park Mall in Seoul. CJ ENM used the event to debut “Apartment (The House),” a hybrid feature film combining AI and live-action footage, and said it signals a shift in how films are made. The film was completed on a total budget of about 500 million won. CJ ENM estimated that producing it through conventional methods would have cost at least five times more. Filming was completed in just four days. The company said the project was an “efficiency experiment” aimed at cutting both cost and time while maintaining quality. CJ ENM said the key approach was to use AI to create all backgrounds and visual effects, while keeping the actors’ performances live. Actors were filmed against a green screen, then combined with AI tools for image generation, retouching and video generation. Google’s generative AI solutions, including Imagen, Nano Banana and Veo, were applied across the production pipeline. Jung said the team maximized efficiency by shooting indoors without moving to locations. He said backgrounds were simulated in detail during preproduction so actors could perform as if they were seeing the real environment on set. CJ ENM also discussed technical limits. Jung said combining different AI solutions can produce uneven color and detail, making digital color grading in postproduction more important. “Each AI output has different color characteristics, so standardizing them is essential,” he said. “The technology has advanced, but the production process still needs refinement.” CJ ENM said it does not see AI as a replacement for actors. The company said authentic acting is difficult for AI to substitute, and that a hybrid model — preserving performance while using AI for backgrounds and effects — is the most practical approach for now. Actor Kim Shin-yong said being able to see AI backgrounds and effects on set helped him stay immersed. He said it was easier to act than in traditional chroma-key shoots. Kim added that AI should be a tool that creates more opportunities to produce content, rather than replacing actors. Baek Hyun-jung, head of content innovation at CJ ENM, said efficiency gains vary by genre and directing style, but that films could see five- to sevenfold cost efficiency. She said the challenge is to use AI not simply to lower budgets, but to raise quality. Baek also highlighted a strategic partnership with Google, saying the company has foundation models strong in realistic depiction. She said CJ ENM is expanding cooperation to move beyond basic generative AI toward “narrative AI,” where storytelling and direction are central. Ahn Sung-min, director of customer engineering at Google Cloud, said AI is a tool to realize creators’ intent, not to replace creativity. He said production quality was improved by precisely analyzing video elements and generating results with consistency. Looking ahead, CJ ENM said the distinction between AI films and conventional films will gradually fade. As computer graphics once expanded the industry, the company said AI will broaden production scale and expressive range. CJ ENM said it expects AI use in film production to expand in earnest starting in the second half of the year. A CJ ENM official said the goal is to apply AI across planning, production, distribution and marketing to strengthen global competitiveness, while advancing the technology and building an industry ecosystem in parallel. 2026-04-30 13:45:21
  • Naver Cloud CEO named co-chair of South Korea’s K-AI Partnership
    Naver Cloud CEO named co-chair of South Korea’s K-AI Partnership Kim You-won, CEO of Naver Cloud, has been appointed co-chair of the government-led K-AI Partnership, taking a leading role in building South Korea’s AI cooperation ecosystem and supporting global expansion. Naver Cloud said Tuesday it was selected as a co-chair organization of the K-AI Partnership alongside the Korea Association of AI and Software Industry (KOSA). Launched under the leadership of the Ministry of Science and ICT, the K-AI Partnership is described as the country’s first integrated public-private cooperation body bringing together industry, academia and research. It was formed to pool national capabilities for AI transformation and to support joint overseas expansion by large companies and small and midsize firms amid intensifying global competition in AI. Unlike groups focused mainly on academic exchange, it aims for an execution-driven structure that moves from identifying on-the-ground industry demand to business matching and generating export results. Cho Joon-hee, KOSA chairman, and Kim will serve as co-chairs. The partnership is designed to combine association leadership with private-sector participation, covering the broader industry while operating on practical technological competitiveness, the company said. Naver Cloud said it has demonstrated its capabilities through major national AI projects and has worked as a bridge between the public and private sectors while pursuing shared growth with small businesses and startups. Based on that experience, the company said it will support the partnership’s business model design and technical cooperation. It also plans to help strengthen AI competitiveness by combining large companies’ infrastructure with startups’ innovative technologies, and to serve as a field-focused channel for policy improvements by reflecting participating companies’ views. “AI is a field that is difficult to complete with the capabilities of individual companies alone, and the scale of cooperation directly translates into competitiveness,” Kim said. “A true AI ecosystem will be built when the infrastructure and technological strength of large companies, the execution power of small businesses and startups, and the research capabilities of industry, academia and research institutes come together.” * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-29 14:45:16
  • 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