- Kakao unveils its new integrated AI brand “Kanana,” laying out Kakao’s AI-powered vision

- New conversational AI service’s contextual understanding fosters human–chatbot relationship and excels in group chats

- Kakao shares its shift towards an AI-native company, revealing key technologies like multimodal and large language models

[October 22, 2024] Kakao declared its AI-native vision and group-wide trajectory blueprint, marking its shift toward becoming an AI-native company, and also unveiled the upcoming service rollout of “Kanana,” an AI mate service capable of contextual understanding.

Kakao (CEO Shina Chung) hosted its developer conference “if(kakaoAI) 2024” at Kakao AI Campus in Yongin, Gyeonggi-do from October 22 to 24. Celebrating its sixth year, if(kakao) serves as a stage for Kakao to announce its new vision and technological developments made so far. For this year’s conference, Kakao has set the overarching theme as AI, introducing a total of 94 sessions under the slogan “Renewing All Connections.” Nearly half of the sessions will center on AI, with the rest providing diverse knowledge across fields like data, cloud, backend development, and mobile technologies.

# Kakao sets the stage for its AI-native future with its integrated AI brand Kanana

CEO Shina Chung detailed Kakao’s AI vision in her keynote address, introducing Kakao’s integrated AI brand Kanana, delving into the different generative AI models and their features, explaining how Kakao is applying AI technologies and its plans moving forward, and presenting the Kakao AI Safety Initiative to ensure safe AI deployment.

CEO Chung highlighted, “Our primary strength at Kakao lies in ‘connecting relationships,’ and even in the era of generative AI, we strive to provide AI services that are highly personalized, taking into account the user’s context and emotions through diverse relationships and conversations.” Furthermore, she unveiled Kakao’s integrated AI brand Kanana, which fully embodies these principles.

“Kanana” reflects the concept of an “interactive ultra-personalized AI assistance service.” The name is a combination of “Kakao,” “native,” and “natural,” indicating Kakao's native and natural AI technology. This brand will be used group-wide as the name for Kakao's main AI models, new services, and even Kakao’s internal AI-focused organizations.

CEO Chung took the opportunity to unveil Kakao’s key generative AI models currently in development, such as large language, multimodal, and visual generation models. The large language model is categorized by capacity into Kanana Flag, Kanana Essence, and Kanana Nano, with specific emphasis on and plans to apply Essence and Nano, which offer globally competitive performance, to its major services.

Examples shared by CEO Chung also included the AI-based “fake signal” system for preventing abuse on KakaoTalk, and the use of AI in features like customized gift recommendations and advertising. She also unveiled group-wide initiatives, including autonomous taxis via Kakao Mobility and personalized financial products via Kakao Pay. A demonstration of a voice model trained on the voices of artists under Kakao Entertainment illustrated how Kakao’s AI technology could combine with its content IP to branch out into diverse services.

CEO Chung also emphasized Kakao’s AI risk management framework titled the Kakao AI Safety Initiative (“Kakao ASI”). Kakao ASI constitutes an all-encompassing guideline designed to build a safe and ethical AI technology development and operation system. It allows for preemptive responses to risks at all stages of the AI lifecycle, including design and development to testing, deployment, monitoring, and updates. It symbolizes Kakao’s commitment to protecting users’ everyday life in the era of AI.

# “Kanana” makes its debut, designed as a relationship-oriented service capable of functioning effectively in group chat settings

On the first day of the conference, Performance Lead SH Lee (Head of Kanana X) took the mic as the second keynote speech and directly unveiled Kanana for “making new connections with AI mates.”

SH Lee asserted, “The technical capabilities and service expertise in messaging platforms that Kakao has built up over the last decade in messaging platform technologies reach an industry-leading standard,” and highlighted the ambition to “forge new types of connections, extending beyond just human interactions to those between AI and people.”

Kanana aspires to offer value beyond the typical utility of an AI agent, striving to be seen as an “AI mate” offering unique value. Kanana remembers key information in the context of ongoing conversations to deliver responses tailored specifically to each user. As it shares memory and experience, it grows and improves in proportion to the time spent together. Unlike existing AI services, which provide only the necessary features through one-on-one chats, Kanana also grasps the context of group conversations to offer suitable responses, thereby facilitating the formation and strengthening of relationships.

AI mates under the Kanana service take the form of “Nana” for individual interactions and “Kana” for group settings. Not limited to one-on-one interactions, Nana recalls conversations from group chats, allowing it to offer a highly personalized user experience. For instance, it keeps track of conference schedules and the list of items to prepare that were discussed in group chats, sending reminder messages to help users stay organized. Given its ability to comprehend multiple document formats, it is also capable of summarizing and facilitating discussions about them. Communication with Nana is available in both text and voice.

Kana functions based on conversations that occur within group chats. Unlike Nana, Kana helps users by remembering conversations only in group chats where it is active. For instance, it could post and grade quizzes about papers studied in a study group chat and offer additional explanations, or suggest romantic dates and venues in a couple’s chat via direct message (DM). The DM feature also proves valuable for summarizing previous conversations for users who join group chats later and marking information exchanged in chats as private. It offers suggestions customized to each user’s specific context rather than giving uniform results to everyone.

Kanana is set for release as a separate application, distinct from KakaoTalk, with an in-house testing version expected to be launched within the year to enhance its capabilities. Lee remarked, “Just as KakaoTalk was in the mobile era, we expect Kanana to become the easiest and most practical mainstream service for users in the generative AI era.”

Revealing the journey to transform into an “AI-native company,” unveiling a lineup of technologies like multimodal and large language models

On the second day of the conference, CTO GD Jeong (Kakao Tech) and Performance Lead BH Kim (Kanana Alpha) led the keynote session. Vice President of Worldwide Developer Relations Ty McKercher (NVIDIA) also joined as a special speaker to discuss the partnership with Kakao centered around Kanana.

First, CTO Jeong shared insights on Kakao’s transformation into an “AI-native” organization. Kakao’s ambition extends beyond incorporating AI features into services as it strives to rise as an AI-native company where AI seamlessly integrates into work processes. CTO Jeong also revealed the diverse transformations already taking place within Kakao and shared strategies that are designed to convert these changes into more innovative services.

BH Kim unveiled the detailed lineup of Kanana, including various AI models owned by and currently in development at Kakao. The presentation covered details about the features and performance of various models, including text-based language models, multimodal language models, visual generative models, and speech models, as well as detailing Kakao’s approach to AI model development.

On the third and last day of the conference, Kakao called together CTOs from Kakao and its affiliates for a major keynote session. This session showcased the AI-driven visions, technologies and services of each organization, ending with a panel discussion to share key insights. Meanwhile, attendees can also enjoy an exhibition showcasing Kakao’s and its affiliates’ AI technologies and services for a hands-on experience. In addition to Kanana, other technologies like Kakao’s autonomous driving solutions, robot service “Bring,” and AI-based productivity tools will be on display.

CEO Chung concluded, “We are putting our utmost effort into turning AI into accessible services so that our 50 million users can easily and conveniently harness advanced technologies,” and added, “We will continue to challenge ourselves to bring forward a future shaped by AI that meets the needs of everyone.” (End)

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