Naver Opens AI Research Center at Second Headquarters '1784'

Accelerating Collaboration with KAIST

On the 21st, at '1784', Naver's second building, a commemorative photo was taken at the opening ceremony of the 'KAIST-Naver Ultra-Creative AI Research Center' by Jeong Song, Dean of KAIST Graduate School of AI, Joo Jae-geol, KAIST Professor, Lee Kwang-hyung, KAIST President, Ha Jung-woo, Head of Naver AI Lab, and Sung Nak-ho, Lead of Naver Clova CIC (from left).

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Naver is accelerating its collaboration with KAIST to advance technology research and talent development.

On the 22nd, Naver opened the ‘KAIST-Naver Ultra-Creative AI Research Center’ on the 4th floor of its second building ‘1784’, covering a total area of 1,160㎡ (350 pyeong).

A Naver representative stated, "We plan to conduct close research cooperation with KAIST researchers based on the research center space," adding, "By securing a space within ‘1784’, Naver’s future technology testing ground, researchers will be able to experience the actual technology application sites and easily communicate with Naver’s service departments to create synergy."

Last May, Naver signed an agreement with KAIST to advance research in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and secure global AI leadership, and established the ‘KAIST-Naver Ultra-Creative AI Research Center’. This large-scale industry-academia cooperation, based on an investment of several tens of billions of won over three years, involves about 10 KAIST professors and approximately 100 AI researchers from both Naver and KAIST, drawing significant attention.

Since last year, Naver and KAIST have been actively conducting research collaboration under the theme of ‘Ultra-Creative AI’, and the results are becoming visible. A paper on a video generation algorithm capable of stably generating relatively long videos that surpass the limitations of existing video generation technology, co-researched with Professor Jinwoo Shin’s team, was accepted at ‘ICLR 2022’, the most prestigious conference in the AI field.

They are also actively cooperating in AI talent development. Naver Clova researchers Sangwoo Lee, Minseok Jang, and Dongyun Han serve as adjunct professors at KAIST’s AI Graduate School, jointly mentoring graduate students.

KAIST President Kwang Hyung Lee said, "Future AI will evolve and develop in a direction that is creative and understands various human emotions," adding, "I hope that creative research that will astonish the world will actively take place through collaboration based on KAIST’s AI expertise and Naver’s data and cloud technologies."