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SEOUL – Months before the first summit between the leaders of the two Koreas in 2000, South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Inc. invested $730,000 in Pyongyang's top computer lab. North Korean programmers there would develop online chess games and food recipes for Samsung to sell outside the North. Samsung quit the business as inter-Korea relations later deteriorated, and the lab -- Korea Computer Center -- was blacklisted last year for its alleged contribution to the North's weapons program. As companies from South Korea to Russia and China again look to cash in on easing tensions with Pyongyang, Samsung's now defunct businesses in Pyongyang and hundreds of similar failed joint ventures underline North Korea's status as one of the world's highest-risk investment destinations. Yet days before the historic meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore, a conference in Seoul to explore investment opportunities in North Korea drew about 600 attendees.

Samsung Electronics is attempting a rapid buildup of its artificial intelligence program led by chief Lee Jae-yong to catch up with front-runners like Google and diversify an earnings base skewed toward chipmaking. By 2020, the South Korean manufacturer aims to have 1,000 AI developers working in five countries. In May, Samsung appointed ex-Google AI developer David Eun as its first chief innovation officer, according to a source familiar with the matter. Since joining the South Korean company about six years ago, Eun has forged partnerships with startups and worked on investments. Samsung did not officially announce the creation of the new post, but an executive said the CIO's role is to "cultivate new businesses of the future on themes like AI and the'fourth industrial revolution,'" using a term for networked machines.

Five months after introducing its digital assistant, Google is sharing the feature with Android partners, hoping the service can boost its odds to win customers from Apple Inc.'s iPhone. Alphabet Inc.'s Google is making its intelligent assistant -- a service that answers queries, plays music and completes tasks -- available for smartphones using the two newest versions of its Android software. It's showcasing the service with a closer partnership with LG Electronics Co. announced Sunday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where LG and a slew of hardware manufacturers aim to make a splash ahead of the iPhone's 10th anniversary later this year. Google's assistant on LG's new G6 phone introduced Sunday at the Mobile World Congress. Until now, Google's Pixel smartphone, introduced in October, has been the only handset with the company's automated assistant.

Following on from the discovery of Samsung's Bixby AI assistant, the South Korean company has provided more evidence that the service will be available in the near future. As part of promoting Samsung Pay on its own website, Samsung's webmasters uploaded a picture detailing three options on how to pay for goods: "Shopping, Mini, and Bixby". 'Bixby' is believed to be a voice-powered digital assistant (see here on Forbes). The assistant is expected to be used by all of Samsung's first-party applications, including the Samsung web browser, Samsung's PIM software and as is now apparent Samsung Pay. It's not clear yet if Bixby will ship with the upcoming flagship handset, although it's the sort of service that feels like a great fit to promote alongside the launch of the Galaxy S8.