SK Telecom Gives New Life to the 'Malmoi' Spirit Through A.X K2, Typeface, and Book
TECHWORLD ·
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SK Telecom announced on the 7th the '2026 Malmoi' campaign, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the enactment of Hangeul Day, together with the National Institute of the Korean Language and the National Hangeul Museum.
The campaign uses the full scanned version of Malmoi and the National Institute of the Korean Language's Standard Korean Dictionary and Urimalsaem, analyzed with the AI foundation model 'A.X K2,' to restore records of the Korean language and create the typeface 'Malmoi Che' and '100 Beautiful Pure Korean Words Collected by AI.'
The 100 selections are scheduled to be distributed on the 8th, the typeface can be downloaded from the Hunminjeongeum Society website, and SKT donated the book to the National Hangeul Museum.
Words such as "yulseul," "sunneun," and "boludeum" carry the intentions of ancestors who preserved the Korean language. This project is based on AI taking over the Korean language collected more than 100 years ago and reviving it in modern typefaces and language.
On the 7th, SK Telecom announced that it would launch the '2026 Malmoi' campaign, marking the 100th anniversary of the enactment of Hangeul Day, together with the National Institute of the Korean Language and the National Hangeul Museum. The campaign aims to restore the records of ancestors who preserved the Korean language through AI. The Malmoi manuscript was written by Professor Ju Si-gyeong and his students.
The campaign is being pushed ahead with the aim of making records of the Korean language preserved in writing and sound usable again in modern daily life. To that end, SK Telecom analyzed the full scanned version of Malmoi, and the National Institute of the Korean Language's Standard Korean Dictionary and Urimalsaem for native Korean words. Urimalsaem is a crowd-sourced Korean knowledge dictionary operated by the National Institute of the Korean Language, and SK Telecom's proprietary AI foundation model, 'A.X K2,' was used in the analysis.
SKT produced the typeface 'Malmoi Che.' According to SKT, the starting point for Malmoi Che was the explanation of 'ㄱ (galjuk)' left in the manuscript.
A.X K2 analyzed letter images in the manuscript and organized the forms of consonants and vowels. Based on that work, the typeface was completed.
At the same time, A.X K2 used data from the Standard Korean Dictionary and Urimalsaem to rediscover pure Korean words that had been listed in dictionaries but had drifted out of everyday use. The selection criteria were words whose definitions carried lyrical and positive imagery, words that would not sound awkward if used today, and words that could be used in titles, names, and subtitles, and A.X K2 selected 100 words based on those criteria. After review by the National Institute of the Korean Language, the results were produced as '100 Beautiful Pure Korean Words Collected by AI.'
'100 Beautiful Pure Korean Words Collected by AI' is scheduled to be distributed on the 8th. The typeface can be downloaded by anyone through the Hunminjeongeum Society website. SKT produced this as a book and donated it to the National Hangeul Museum.
Examples of the Korean words included in the 100 selections include 'yulseul,' meaning the shimmering ripples reflected in sunlight or moonlight, and 'sunneun,' meaning clean snow that remains piled up just as it fell. In addition, 'puteunnat' refers to familiarity to the point of recognizing one another's faces, while 'boludeum' carries the meaning of a dimple.
Along with this, records preserved in documents and records preserved in audio are also brought back into view. The holdings of the Bibliothèque nationale de France include an audio recording of Lee Geuk-ro, who was the secretary-general of the Joseon Language Society and a Korean language scholar who led the compilation of 'The Great Joseon Language Dictionary.'
SKT will release a campaign video on the 7th linking written records and audio records. The video will be available on SKT's YouTube channel, and it shows the process by which records defending the Korean language from 100 years ago are carried through AI into today's typefaces and words. The video also lets viewers hear Lee Geuk-ro's voice.
For customer participation, SKT is running a way to join in collecting today's Korean words on SKT's official SNS. It is also rolling out Reels and card news content featuring regional dialects and generation-specific neologisms. As event prizes, it will offer, by lottery, a special edition of the '2026 Malmoi' book and 2026 Malmoi Che keycaps.
Lee Seung-yeol, head of SKT's strategy communications (Comm) division, said the campaign was created to use the Korean language collected by ancestors more than 100 years ago through AI and share it in a typeface and words anyone can use, and added that the company plans to continue working so that AI can be used to preserve the value of the Korean language and Korean culture.
Source: TECHWORLD · Lee Gwang-jae
Original: https://www.epnc.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=407861
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Source: TECHWORLD
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