Huawei has been putting some meat on the bones of its Telecom Foundation Model unveiled at MWC 2024 and the associated strategy, with a focus on applying both Generative and “traditional” AI to operation and management (O&M) of the 5G Core. Automation of core functions will be a major challenge for operators, with Huawei admitting it will lag behind the RAN on that front, with human intervention in some of the higher-level processes being required at least for longer. There is nothing new about telco cores, dating back to manual switchboards earlier last century for operators to route voice calls correctly on demand. Core management was then about people and processes more than technology, but during the mobile era has…