LG to develop AI model to treat Alzheimer's, cancer

Bae Kyung-hoon (center left), head of LG AI Research, and Lon Cardon (center right), the Jackson Laboratory CEO, pose for a photo during a recent partnership signing ceremony held in Connecticut, the US, December, 2023. (LG Group)

LG Group said Monday that its artificial intelligence research lab is teaming up with US biomedical institution Jackson Laboratory to develop AI models that can be used to treat Alzheimer's disease and cancer.

The new partnership comes after the two entities signed a memorandum of understanding in December last year. Under the new contract, LG Group will use its AI model, EXAONE, to analyze Jackson Laboratory’s research data relating to different types of cancers and Alzheimer's disease and study causes associated with the diseases.

EXAONE, developed by LG AI Research, the AI research lab under LG Group, is a giant multimodal language model that can understand both languages and images simultaneously.

LG Group expects EXAONE to become able to diagnose cancers by visual inspection of stained tissue slides, without expensive and specialized tests. The AI model will also be able to suggest more optimized treatments to doctors based on patients’ genomic information. LG added that EXAONE will support the development of new cancer medications in the future as well.

“LG Group and Jackson Laboratory’s AI models will be able to provide personalized, precision therapeutics and diagnostics to patients,” the group noted.

The latest partnership comes after LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo said last year that the conglomerate was seeking new growth drivers in the AI and bio sectors. “LG’s bio business is in its nascent stage at the moment. But, if we make consistent efforts, it will grow to represent LG in the future,” Koo said during a meeting with AVEO CEO Michael Bailey in Boston in August last year.

Bae Kyung-hoon, head of LG AI Research, also said "LG AI Research will continue our research and development efforts to get meaningful results in the bio sector, which will become our future growth engine."