LG Electronics will hold a competition to help disabled teenagers build AI capabilities and enter society. LG Electronics said on Monday it will host the 2026 Global IT Challenge for Youth with Disabilities (GITC) Korea competition on July 15-16 in Yuseong-gu, Daejeon. The event is hosted by LG and the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and organised by LG Electronics and the Korea Association of Persons with Disabilities.

GITC has been held since 2011 to improve IT skills for disabled youth worldwide and support their entry into society. Over the past 15 years, about 5,000 people from 41 countries have taken part. Last year's competition was held in South Korea as the only disability-related event among side events of the APEC summit.

The Korea competition will include 60 disabled teenagers from 17 regions nationwide. It features four events: e-Combination on AI-based information search and document work, e-Creative evaluating autonomous driving car programming, e-Content on video production skills, and e-Interactive making interactive games with AI. Four finalists will compete in the world competition in Da Nang, Vietnam, for three days from Oct. 27.

LG Electronics worked with the Korea Association of Persons with Disabilities to provide all participants with online and offline pre-competition training in using generative AI, video production and block coding. It aims to help participants apply AI capabilities to daily life and future jobs separately from the competition. It also plans to support separate intensive training for world competition participants in September.

GITC is serving as a stepping stone to help participating youths pursue further education and jobs in the IT field. Gi-hoon Shin (신기훈), the winner of the 2011 Vietnam competition, later majored in computer engineering and is now researching AI implementation for smart devices in the doctoral programme at Pusan National University's Embedded Systems Laboratory.

Dae-sik Yoon (윤대식), executive vice president in charge of external relations at LG Electronics, said, "We will actively support young people with dreams and talent in the IT field so they can grow into future talent with AI capabilities beyond their disabilities through GITC."