SK Telecom (SKT) announced that it will participate in the Global AI Red Team Challenge during MWC26 to assess the safety and reliability of its proprietary artificial intelligence model, A.X K1.
The Global AI Red Team Challenge is a program in which approximately 100 expert evaluators test large language models (LLMs) developed by major telecommunications and AI companies from Korea and abroad. The review focuses on identifying potential misuse risks, including biased or discriminatory outputs and privacy violations.
The event is co-hosted by GSMA and SelectStar, a company specializing in AI data and trustworthiness evaluation. It will be held on March 3 (local time) at the Talent Arena within the MWC venue in Barcelona, Spain.
The program operates by allowing external experts to directly examine the safety of AI model responses. It is regarded as a verification stage for companies that have achieved a high level of technical maturity and reliability. While evaluation results are scored by a panel, details such as the number of participating companies, individual scores and rankings will not be disclosed.
SK Telecom will submit its hyperscale language model A.X K1 for evaluation. The model was developed using proprietary technologies across the entire process from architecture design to training. It was recently selected in the first-stage evaluation of a national initiative to develop a sovereign AI foundation model, demonstrating its technological competitiveness.
A.X K1 is part of the broader A.X series, which SK Telecom has refined using data and operational expertise accumulated through its telecommunications and platform businesses. The model currently powers the company’s AI service A-DoT and is being expanded to support various operational areas within the SK Group.
Through participation in the global challenge, SK Telecom aims to obtain an objective assessment of A.X K1’s performance and safety. The company plans to incorporate the evaluation findings into future improvements, further enhancing the model’s robustness.
Kim Tae-yoon, Head of Foundation Models at SK Telecom, said that as AI becomes more deeply integrated into daily life and industry, ensuring safety and trustworthiness is as critical as advancing technological capabilities. He added that participation in the Global AI Red Team Challenge will help reinforce trust in SK Telecom’s AI technologies.
