[News Terms] 'Sovereign AI' Emerging as a Core Driver of AI Technological Innovation

Most Generative AI Are English-Based, Raising Concerns Over Identity Loss
Developed by France's LeChat, China's Kimi, India's Krutrim, etc.
Domestic Focus on Naver HyperCLOVA and HyperCLOVAX

As governments and companies concerned about value dependency on US-centered big tech strengthen investments related to 'Sovereign AI,' 'Sovereign AI' has emerged as a core driver of AI technological innovation.

'Sovereign AI' is a compound term combining 'Sovereign,' meaning autonomy, and 'AI,' artificial intelligence, referring to 'AI with sovereignty' or 'AI sovereignty.' It denotes AI services based on proprietary data and infrastructure that reflect a country's language, culture, social context, and values.

Naver founder and Global Investment Officer (GIO) Lee Hae-jin discussed the issue of country-specific artificial intelligence (AI) known as 'Sovereign AI' with Jensen Huang, CEO of the American semiconductor company Nvidia. The photo shows Lee Hae-jin, Naver founder and Global Investment Officer (GIO, left), Jensen Huang, Nvidia CEO, and Choi Soo-yeon, Naver CEO, on the 27th of last month.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

In other words, it can be defined as a nation's ability to independently build and operate AI using its own infrastructure, data, workforce, and business networks without external interference.

Currently, generative AI developed mainly in the US is based mostly on English-language data, thus internalizing Western culture and values. Prolonged exposure to such AI services may distort a country's unique history and culture, leading to social conflicts. In severe cases, it could result in the loss of national identity. Domestically, Naver's search service has been overshadowed by Google, and Kakao has long lost its position as the 'national app' to YouTube. The issue of securing AI sovereignty is an urgent matter for us as well.

According to industry sources on the 11th, global market research firm Gartner recently included Sovereign AI as a category for the first time in its 'AI Hype Cycle for Artificial Intelligence, 2024.' The Hype Cycle is Gartner's model that visually represents market expectations and realities regarding technology trends and innovations.

Gartner included Sovereign AI for the first time in a segment of the Hype Cycle alongside Edge AI, AI Engineering, AI TRiSM, and Composite AI. Specifically, it evaluated that Sovereign AI will be effective at the point where expectations for AI reach their peak.

Governments worldwide are also expanding investments related to Sovereign AI. In April last year, French company Mistral AI, founded by former researchers from Google DeepMind and Meta, developed its own AI model called 'Le Chat.' It has been evaluated as a competitor to ChatGPT, with investments from Samsung Electronics, NVIDIA, Naver, and others. The investment amount received solely from major global companies is reported to reach approximately 1 trillion KRW.

Chinese AI startup Moonshot AI introduced 'Kimi,' a chatbot specialized in processing Chinese sentences, with Alibaba holding about 36% of its shares. Indian AI startup Krutrim developed an LLM named 'Krutrim' trained in Indian languages, supporting more than ten local languages including Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu. Finnish AI startup Silo developed 'Poro' and 'Viking,' LLMs based on Nordic languages.

Japan recently provided about 72.5 billion yen (approximately 620 billion KRW) in funding to companies to reduce dependence on US technology and is collaborating with NVIDIA to develop a Japanese language-specialized LLM. The LLM under development analyzes natural disaster response methods and climate change tailored to regional architecture and terrain.

Domestically, Naver's 'HyperCLOVA' and 'HyperCLOVA X' are gaining attention. On the 4th, Lee Hae-jin, Naver founder and Global Investment Officer (GIO), met with Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, to discuss Sovereign AI. Although Naver and NVIDIA have different core businesses, both have emphasized the importance of Sovereign AI from early on.

An IT industry insider said, "As generative AI is certain to have a significant impact on the global economy, countries that have not independently built AI inevitably feel uneasy," adding, "Since training is essential to strengthen Sovereign AI, the government needs to make efforts to provide a large amount of high-quality public data."