[IFA 2018] Collaboration with Google, Amazon to create new biz for LG, says CEO

BERLIN -– Jo Seong-jin, vice chairman and CEO of LG Electronics, a passionate advocate of artificial intelligence, believes open cooperation with top AI players like Google and Amazon will help the device manufacturer gather data better and make it a strong AI player.

“Our cooperation with Google and Amazon will help us accumulate data in our devices, and this will make LG a strong AI company,” Jo said Friday during a press conference on the first day of IFA 2018 taking place for six days through Wednesday in Berlin. 

“Google and Amazon have enormous amount of commonly open data, and we are collaborating with them under our ‘open’ strategy on AI,” he said. “In the initial stage, we are taking advantage of access to their data, but later on we will build our own data that is stored in Wi-Fi-enabled devices, which will be our possession.”

“New businesses by combining the Google data with data could be newly created, and this will benefit consumers in the most effective manner,” he added.

The South Korean company is accelerating its transformation from a traditional home appliance manufacturer to an AI and robot technology business under the so-called “open strategy” that seeks open connectivity, open platform and open innovation with outside tech firms and developers.

“We started applying Wi-Fi to home appliances last year, connecting more than 10 million devices in total as of this year, and the number will continue rapidly rising,” he said. “Now we are adding AI to these connected devices starting with air conditioners, premium kitchen appliances and TVs. The category of Wi-Fi-based AI-powered home appliance products will get bigger and bigger.”

LG will step up the level of cooperation with Google and Amazon and also with some technology research institutes and universities like University of Toronto, according to the CEO.

“The company is not considering any mergers and acquisitions of sizable AI businesses at the moment,” he said.

By Song Su-hyun, Korea Herald correspondent (song@heraldcorp.com)