GSMA Launches 'Open Telco AI' Alliance
The GSMA has launched a new industry initiative called “Open Telco AI” to speed up the adoption of artificial intelligence in telecommunications. The program aims to create open standards for AI-driven network management and automation across the sector.
The initiative arrives as general-purpose AI models consistently fail to meet the complex demands of the telecommunications sector. A GSMA Intelligence report highlighted that only 16% of generative AI deployments in the industry have been applied to network operations, a direct result of current AI's inability to accurately interpret network data and technical standards. Founding supporters AT&T and AMD are making significant initial contributions. AT&T is releasing a family of open-source "telco-grade" models, while AMD, in partnership with TensorWave, will provide the essential GPU computing power for training and fine-tuning these specialized AI systems. The alliance will focus on developing AI for specific, high-stakes telecom use cases, including network management, configuration, and troubleshooting. Early projects will include advanced models like a radio-frequency language model from Khalifa University, dubbed RFGPT, and a Large Telco Model from AdaptKey AI built on Nvidia's Nemotron framework. To measure the effectiveness of these new models, the alliance has introduced the Telco Capability Index. This public leaderboard will track and benchmark the performance of AI models against a range of telecom-specific tasks, creating a clear standard for "telco-grade" AI. "Today's AI models still fall short of the complexity, precision and reliability the telecom industry demands," said Louis Powell, Director of AI Initiatives at the GSMA. "Put simply, AI does not yet speak telco." This initiative is distinct from the operator-led Global Telco AI Alliance (GTAA), which is focused on developing multilingual large language models for customer service applications. The GSMA has indicated it will work closely with the GTAA, suggesting the two initiatives are complementary, with Open Telco AI building the foundational, technical AI capabilities for the entire industry. A broad coalition of industry players has joined the effort, including operators like SK Telecom, Softbank, and Turkcell, alongside tech companies and academic institutions such as Nvidia, Orange, and Purdue University.
