The Intel Extreme Masters PyeongChang tournament for Blizzard Entertainment’s real-time strategy game will take place Feb. 5-7 at the Olympic Village in PyeongChang. Intel has yet to confirm a venue.

A total of 18 StarCraft II players who have passed the online qualifiers compete in the main tournament for a chance at the $150,000 prize pool, according to Intel.

Korean players set to compete in the esports tournament include Joo “Zest” Sung-wook and Kim “sOs” Yoo-jin. Other players come from Ukraine, Mexico, France, India, Colombia, the US, Australia, Poland, Brazil, Tunisia, Finland, China and Taiwan.

IEM PyeongChang was organized by Intel as an extension of “The Olympic Partner” sponsorship program, with support from the International Olympic Committee.

Alongside the “StarCraft II” competition, Intel will also be running game kiosks featuring Ubisoft’s action-sports title “Steep Road to the Olympics,” the official licensed game of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, at the Olympic Village.

“Intel has been pushing the boundaries of esports for well over a decade and our goal is to bring esports to every global sporting stage,” said Gregory Bryant, senior vice president and general manager of the Client Computing Group at Intel.

“From the qualifying events to the groundbreaking Intel Extreme Masters tournament in PyeongChang, we see this as another important step in giving more people around the world a chance to experience the thrill of esports.”

As an official Olympic partner, Intel will also be powering the largest virtual reality event to date using the Intel True VR technology system throughout the Winter Games next month. Together with the Olympic Broadcast Services and South Korea’s mobile carrier KT, Intel will capture 30 Olympic events, offering both live and video on-demand content in VR to interested visitors.

By Ji-young Sohn

(Korea Herald)

Tech firms showcased their latest gadgets at the MWC, which kicked off with the keynote speaker SoftBank Group chief executive Masayoshi Son saying, “Artificial intelligence will be smarter than the human brain within 30 years.”

LG Electronics moved into the limelight at this year’s tech event by outpacing its rival Samsung in revealing its newest smartphone G6, the first non-Google phone to support the Google Assistant, an AI-based voice assistant.

With the adoption of machine learning — the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed — the AI assistant makes its smartphone smarter the more one uses it, the company said.

LG set up a separate room to demonstrate its Google Assistant and how it can be connected to other devices like a smartwatch. When one visitor vice commanded the smartwatch play Michael Jackson, the music was played through the G6 smartphone connected to the watch.

A LG official said, “The Google Assistant, with its open platform, can be further connected with other products like home appliances in the future.”

LG G6′s Google Assistant (The Korea Herald/Shin Ji-hye)

Korean telecom operator SK Telecom also showcased its AI-powered speaker NUGU alongside some home robots made in partnership with local tech companies Future Robot and IPL.

NUGU was demonstrated in English during the event in partnership with IBM’s question-answering computer system Watson. Other robots ran only in Korean language.

Visitors paid keen attention to how NUGU worked, giving out such commands in English as ”tomato spaghetti recipe,” to which the speaker correctly recited the instructions.

Ernst-Joachim Steffens, research director at Deutsche Telekom, said he tried several robots at the event.

“In Germany, we don’t have such home robots although we do have many industrial robots. I want to buy it if the price is affordable,” he said.

SK Telecom’s NUGU (The Korea Herald/Shin Ji-hye)

German automaker BMW, meanwhile, demonstrated its connected car technology outside the main hall in partnership with chipmaker Intel.

When an employee wearing a smartwatch made a gesture, the car parked in a garage moved backward for a driver to get in. It was possible as the sensors in the car can detect objects in its surroundings, according to the firm.

BMW’s autonomous driving technology is expected to be further developed through Intel’s 5G-ready solution platform when the 5G network is fully ready by 2020, it added.

Intel said it will deploy machine and neural learning technology to help the car “think” via cloud.

For instance, if there is a dog standing in front of the car, it will recognize it as a dog because it has the capability to recognize the type of an object and make an instant decision.

“The more the car is used on the road, the car becomes smarter as it collects more data and learns more realistic scenarios even car designers haven’t thought of,” Rob Topol, general manager of Intel’s 5G business and technology unit, told The Korea Herald.

BMW Connected car (The Korea Herald/Shin Ji-hye)