"Building a Better Society with AI" SK Telecom and Hana Financial Host 'Tech4Good Hackathon'

115 Young Talents Participate in AI Service Development

Awards for Personalized AI Fairy Tale and Disciplinary Solution

On July 19, SK Telecom announced the successful conclusion of the 'Tech4Good Hackathon,' which was jointly organized with Hana Financial Group under the theme of "AI Services for an Inclusive Future."

The 'T1' team, which won the grand prize at the 'Tech4Good' hackathon jointly hosted by SK Telecom and Hana Financial Group, is posing for a commemorative photo with Jonghwan Eom, Head of Sustainability Management at SK Telecom (fourth from the right) after the award ceremony. Photo by SK Telecom

This hackathon was part of the AI talent development programs promoted by both companies, and took place at the SK Telecom Human Resource Development Center in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, on July 15 and 16. A total of 115 participants took part, including 61 members from the 9th cohort of SK Telecom’s "Fly AI Challenger" program for youth and 54 from Hana Financial Group’s "Hana Youth Financial Talent Development Project."

Young participants in the competition proposed a variety of ideas covering: ▲ solutions to support the socially disadvantaged and create a sustainable society, ▲ AI services for digitally marginalized groups, and ▲ financial and telecommunications-converged environmental, social, and governance (ESG) service areas. SK Telecom’s practical developers participated as mentors, answering technical questions and providing advice based on real-world development experience.

The grand prize went to Team 'T1,' which introduced a personalized AI fairy tale and disciplinary solution service based on a child’s experiences. The Excellence Award was shared by Team 'Haemulpajeon,' which developed a service enabling parents who have difficulty with pronunciation to narrate fairy tales to their children in their own voices, and Team 'Sibi-Ganji,' which proposed a service that reconstructs stock information as auditory and tactile content for the visually impaired.

SK Telecom stated that participants responded enthusiastically, noting the event was an opportunity to move beyond simply implementing technology and to directly consider how AI could contribute to society. Lee Donghyuk, a student at Soongsil University’s School of Global Media, and a member of the winning team, commented, "Over the two days, we considered the challenges faced by the socially disadvantaged from multiple perspectives and explored AI solutions for addressing them. This will be a motivation for my future growth."

Jonghwan Eom, Head of Sustainability Management at SK Telecom, said, "This hackathon was a time for us to share the potential for building a better society with AI technology. SK Telecom will continue striving to spread the social value created by AI in the future."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.