South Korean internet conglomerate Kakao reached an agreement to use OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other AI services on its social media platform, The Korea Herald reported.

The companies also agreed to develop AI products for the local market and integrate OpenAI’s technology into Kakao’s offering including KakaoTalk, the country’s largest instant messenger app with around a 97 per cent share.

Kakao explained it will deploy ChatGPT Enterprise and use OpenAI models to power its new AI communication service Kanana, the newspaper wrote.

It unveiled its integrated AI brand Kanana in 2024, calling it “an AI mate service” capable of contextual understanding.

At the time, Kakao stated key generative AI models including large language, multimodal and visual generation versions were in development.

OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman was in Seoul to meet Kakao’s CEO along with as executives from SK Group and Samsung.

Earlier this week, OpenAI forged a deal with SoftBank Group covering AI development for Japanese enterprises.