OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's firing was over a "breakdown in communication between Sam and the board," and not "malfeasance or anything related to our financial, business, safety, or security/privacy practices," Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap wrote in an internal company memo Saturday morning, viewed by Reuters. The board of OpenAI, the company behind hit product ChatGPT, on Friday pushed out its high-profile CEO Altman, sending shock waves across the tech industry. Th

Samsung Group commemorated the 36th anniversary of the death of Lee Byung-chull, the founder of Korea’s largest conglomerate, in a memorial service Friday. Lee's relatives, including former Leeum Samsung Museum of Art Director Hong ra-hee, Lee's daughter-in-law, and his two granddaughters Lee Boo-jin and Lee Seo-hyun, who are presidents of Hotel Shilla and Samsung C&T, respectively, paid tribute to the late founder, gathering at Hoam Art Museum in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. C

The prosecution on Friday demanded five years in prison for Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong on charges of stock price rigging and accounting fraud connected to the controversial 2015 merger of two Samsung affiliates. Prosecutors also requested a fine of 500 million won ($387,000) for Lee during the final hearing at the Seoul Central District Court. Lee is charged with stock price rigging, breach of duty and accounting fraud in the course of the controversial 2015 merger of two Samsung

KB Financial Group’s shareholders approved of Vice Chairman Yang Jong-hee's appointment as the next chairman during a special shareholders' meeting at its headquarters in Seoul on Friday. The financial group's shareholders overwhelmingly supported Yang's appointment, with 97 percent of votes in favor. "Despite various challenges in the domestic economy and financial industry, there are high expectations from shareholders for KB Financial Group. I am aware of this a

The International Monetary Fund has upwardly revised its inflation forecast for South Korea to 3.6 percent for this year and 2.4 percent for next year, and advised the country to maintain its current interest rate policy to ensure price stability. In the IMF’s annual report released by the Finance Ministry on Friday, the IMF projected a 3.6 percent inflation rate for this year, which is 0.2 percentage points higher than the 3.4 percent projected in the IMF's October report. The IMF�

14 member countries agree to launch Critical Mineral Dialogue, personnel exchange network

Hyundai Motor will become the first automaker to sell cars on Amazon, the company said, announcing a strategic partnership with the US e-commerce giant at a motor show Thursday. The two companies unveiled their plan at the 2023 Los Angeles Auto Show in a joint showcase, with Jose Munoz, global chief operating officer at Hyundai Motor Company, and Marty Mallick, Amazon’s vice president for Worldwide Business and Corporate Development, delivering the presentations. “This ideal partners

SK hynix, the world’s second-largest memory chip maker, won this year’s R&D 100 Awards, also known as "the Oscars of innovation," with its cutting-edge Key Value Computational Storage Drive (KV-CSD), the company said Friday. Among the 100 winners of the 2023 R&D 100 Awards, which recognizes the most promising products or technologies that will bring change to the industry, SK hynix marked its name in the IT/Electrical category. “Once commercialized, KV-CSD wil

LG group on Friday has kicked off promotional discounts across its affiliated companies in commemoration of its professional baseball team winning its first championship in 29 years, cutting the price in various forms related to the magic number 29. LG Twins, an affiliate of the LG Group, won Game 5 of the Korean Series against KT Wiz on Monday to clinch its first title since 1994. LG Electronics, the flagship corporation of the group, will be giving 29 percent discounts starting 10 a.m., next T

Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp. on Thursday declared "Global Kimchi Day" to raise awareness about the Korean staple food globally, together with Korean food buyers and foreign diplomats during the Buy Korean Food trade fair in Seoul. The state-run food trade agency, known as aT, has already celebrated Nov. 22 as Kimchi Day following a revision to the Kimchi Industry Promotion Act in February 2020. At Thursday’s event, aT vowed to seek the day’s global recognitio

LG Electronics will make its official debut in the US electric vehicle charger market with its own slow and rapid charger models, the tech giant said Thursday. The company plans to roll out an 11-kilowatt charger and a 175kW fast-charging model in the US market in the first half of 2024. To meet the increasing needs of the growing EV users, the company also said it will expand its lineup of fast chargers in the second half of next year. "We will respond to the ever-increasing demand for EV

iStaging Asia, a joint venture between South Korean company I&OK and Taipei-based iStaging, said Thursday it has applied for a total of three patents in the field of three-dimensional spatial web transformation. The patents include: 3D spatial transformation from a 2D model, 3D spatial editing and 3D floor plan rendering. The technologies will enable businesses to transform their products into 3D models by simply recording a video of a product with a smartphone, which also reduces costs and ti

South Korea’s beer imports from China decreased by over 40 percent last month after a hygiene incident at a Tsingtao brewery was revealed. Imports of Japanese beer products, on the other hand, increased by over 300 percent. According to data from the Korea Customs Service on Thursday, Korea’s imports of Chinese beer reached 228.1 tons in October, down 42.6 percent on-year. The import value of Chinese beer products shipped to Korea during the same period came to $1.9 million, also dow

SK touts more than 200 AI technologies, including new chip X330

Korean Water Resources Corp., or K-water, on Thursday declared its new vision to be that of a “global water corporation leading solutions for climate change,” with the aim of promoting the nation’s green industry and providing people with clean water resources. On Thursday, CEO Yun Seog-dae announced the corporation’s new management principles for a “new age of water,” in response to rapid climate change, at K-water headquarters in Daejeon. As a corporation th