SK Telecom (SKT) upgraded its A. chatbot with new features it pledged deliver a smarter conversational AI, claiming improvements to the overall user experience while furthering its presence in the technology sector.

A key element of the upgrades is employing a ChatGPT model from the Microsoft Azure OpenAI service, which SKT stated provides a more personalised conversation between users and an artificial character.

It created a chatroom function for interactions with the AI characters, added more conversational agents and upgraded its own large language model to let users engage in multi-turn dialogue.

“The model can understand the context of a conversation and grasp complex intentions, thereby creating a more logical and useful conversation.”

SKT also “eased the age limit” for A. users to include those aged under 14 years, “to enable more customers to experience generative AI”.

Kim Yong-hun, VP and head of AI Service Business Office, said the operator expects “more customers to feel comfortable” using its set-up following the changes.

The executive explained further evolutions are planned to make A. “a service that can help customers”.