Nokia Bell Labs and e& hope to dream up some AI use cases

The two have signed a 12-month, non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU), which all sounds very non-committal.

Under this loose arrangement, e& and Bell Labs will explore collaboration opportunities with industry, universities and research centres with the aim of developing AI and ICT solutions that can play a role in industrial automation and digitalisation.

They reckon that network connectivity and AI are fundamental to addressing challenges like productivity, efficiency, health and safety, and sustainability.

"By jointly developing applications and use cases that leverage our expertise in responsible AI, software and data systems, we will accelerate the digital transformation that provides new technologies for a safer, more productive and more sustainable future. We look forward to co-creating ground-breaking solutions that can unlock new business opportunities for industrial operations in the Middle East and beyond," said Thierry Klein, president of Bell Labs solutions research at Nokia.

"While we realise the immense potential of AI, we also recognise it's imperative to establish robust safeguards to ensure its responsible development and deployment. This approach is the cornerstone of our collaboration with Nokia Bell Labs as we both explore the potential of AI in driving sustainable industrial automation," added Dena Almansoori, e&'s chief AI and data officer. "This partnership reflects our shared commitment to responsible AI and to a more efficient and sustainable future. By leveraging Nokia Bell Labs' expertise in AI research and our deep understanding of industrial applications, we are set to explore the development of innovative solutions that address critical challenges facing industries today.”

It's worth considering briefly whether this agreement has any implications for the Global Telco AI Alliance (GTAA) and e&'s participation in it, or whether it offers any clues as to how it's going.

It has been seven months since e& along with Deutsche Telekom (DT), Singtel, SoftBank and SK Telecom (SKT) announced plans to turn their partnership – first established in summer 2023 – into a fully-fledged joint venture, and three months since the JV agreement was signed.

It has been crickets ever since.

Its ambition is to jointly develop a multilingual large language model (LLM) that is particularly well versed when it comes to talking telecoms. The plan is to use it as the foundation for various telco-related GenAI applications, including digital assistants.

While the idea has merit, the window of opportunity is closing, as big names in GenAI – like Anthropic, Cohere, Google and OpenAI – push further into the telecoms industry.

Earlier this week, UK incumbent BT announced it is working with Amazon Web Services (AWS) on what it calls a GenAI Gateway platform, giving it access to a range of LLMs that can be used to enhance its internal processes.

Last week, DT's US arm T-Mobile revealed it has partnered with OpenAI to develop an AI-powered customer relationship management platform called IntentCX.

Earlier in September, Telenor discussed plans to co-develop a cloud-native data and analytics orchestration platform called Nova. Nova will integrate Google's Vertex AI, giving Telenor the means to develop GenAI applications that are compatible with any one of 150 foundation models.

And that's just a snapshot of some of things that have been going on in September that overlap with the GTAA.

With existing LLMs being used to power telco-related use cases, it raises questions about the necessity for telcos to develop one of their own.