LG CEO redefines AI as 'affectionate intelligence' at CES

LG Electronics CEO Cho Joo-wan speaks during the LG World Premiere event at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Monday (local time), as he explains the company's new AI Brain. Courtesy of LG Electronics By Ko Dong-hwan LG Electronics CEO Cho Joo-wan has redefined AI as "affectionate intelligence" during the company's self-promotional presentation in Las Vegas a day before the start of CES 2024, according to the global electronic appliance giant, Tuesday. Hosting the LG World Premiere at Mandalay Bay, Cho explained to some 1,000 people gathered from around the world and those watching via online streaming what differentiates his company's AI technologies from other brands. He said LG's new interpretation of AI is backed by its three distinctive functions: "real-time life intelligence," "orchestrated intelligence" and "responsible intelligence." "Our AI can look after its users and sympathize with them better than before, allowing our customers to experience new (affectionate) AIs," said Cho. Billions of the company's smart appliances and IoT devices now in use at home, mobility and commercial spaces worldwide are equipped with AI-backed sensors that learn users' physical and psychological patterns, according to the CEO. Those products collect "real-time life data," based on which they can learn users' ambient settings, activity patterns, voice tones, nuances in dialogue and even facial expressions. Through the multifaceted data, the company can learn more about its customers, a strength Cho called a unique asset and unparallelled difference from his competitors. As for its orchestrating function, LG AI Brain, now under development, controls other AI devices based on its own large language model (LLM), a high-level deductive processing system. Using the language, the brain can control other smart devices to adjust their functions to a user's varying preferences in real time. "Just like how songwriters and composers create new musical numbers using the same notes, LG AI Brain has the same orchestrating function to cater to users' tastes," said Cho. LG Shield is another function of the company's AIs which enables them to safeguard the data they glean from their users. The data security system self-activates whenever the company's AIs collect, store or use data from their users so that the company can be responsible for outcomes of services initiated by its AIs. "We want to monitor how rationally our AIs execute commands deduced from learning their users and control how they access the data collected from their users," Cho said. "To use AI technologies at best, each user must be able to control AI on a certain level." "Life is Good," the company's slogan, is the company's promise to center the rising age of AI around humans, not AI, to make people's lives better, Cho said as he concluded the presentation.