[IFA 2017] LG moving to acquire AI business

BERLIN -- As part of efforts to expand its smart home business, LG Electronics will double its investment by 2020 including mergers and acquisitions of promising artificial intelligence tech firms, said Song Dae-hyun, head of the company’s home appliance and air solutions division Saturday.

At a press conference held at a hotel in Berlin, Song said LG would spare no efforts to boost its smart home business and continue investing to acquire AI and Internet of Things technologies. 

“As for the AI business, inorganic growth would be more effective,” Song said. “LG officially seeks to acquire some AI companies. But so far, many acquisition projects fell apart due to market conditions.”

“LG is aggressively looking for a good AI company,” he added.

Song visited the German capital to meet with major European clients and check out latest tech trends at the IFA 2017.

“LG was the first to add Wi-Fi to all of the home appliance lineups this year,” he said. “Based on connectivity, the company will try to bring value to consumers by establishing a smart home ecosystem pivoting on AI, IoT and robotic technologies.”

Recently, LG has been increasing partnerships with Google and Amazon to apply the two IT moguls’ voice recognition platforms to LG products for global consumers.

“We do have our exclusive voice technology, but we apply the Google and Amazon technologies in order to allow consumers to conveniently use LG products with what they prefer to use,” Song said. “We are now working with Google to take advantage of its database accumulated through its search engine. But we are also continuing to develop our DeepThinQ AI platform at the same time.”

The CEO added robots would be a major pillar of the smart home business.

“We are nearing commercialization of robots,” he said. “We receive orders for robots from various industries, such as shopping malls and libraries.” 

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