Kakao suspends AI chatbot service due to 'massive' popularity

Kakao Brain, an artificial intelligence technology research and development subsidiary of Kakao, said Monday it has temporarily suspended its generative AI-based chatbot service, within a day after its open beta release, due to technical glitches.

At around 4 p.m. on Monday, Ddmm was unexpectedly closed after too many users flocked to try out the service. By the time Kakao had suspended the service, some 13,000 users had added the service to their mobile messenger, KakaoTalk.

The exact date for resuming the beta service has not yet been decided, Kakao officials said. It had been released on Sunday at 2 p.m.

"It has been suspended due to heavy usage. It is currently under inspection," a Kakao Brain official told The Korea Herald. "We had to stop the chatbot platform to provide better services to our users."

The exact date for resuming the beta service has not yet been decided, the official added.

Ddmm answers users' questions and requests like OpenAI's viral chatbot ChatGPT. The service became available for free for a limited time to anyone who added the service's channel via KakaoTalk.

It combines the Korean-language AI model KoGPT and AI image model Karlo, developed by Kakao Brain. The AI chatbot service helps users search, summarize and translate information, and even draws pictures upon users' requests.

Yet some Kakao AI chatbot users pointed out inaccuracies in the service. They report that Ddmm provided incorrect information or gave nonexistent information, and was slow in responding, they said.