Performance, Openness, and Ecosystem Impact to Be Evaluated
Five Teams to Be Selected Next Month, Two Finalists in 2027
Major conglomerates as well as numerous startups have entered the competition to develop an independent artificial intelligence (AI) foundation model, known as a sovereign AI, as part of a government bidding project. With the government providing full support, there is growing interest in which company will ultimately earn the title of 'K-AI'.
According to the Ministry of Science and ICT on July 24, a total of 15 consortiums submitted applications for the independent AI foundation model project, with the application deadline having closed on July 21.
The lead organizations include Naver Cloud, Lunit, Motif Technologies, Bionexus, CyonicAI, Upstage, SK Telecom, NC AI, LG AI Research, JunctionMed, Kakao, KT, Konan Technology, Pion Corporation, and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Each consortium also includes participants such as Krafton, ESTsoft, and Lotte Innovate. In academia, not only KAIST but also Seoul National University, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Korea University, and Yonsei University are participating. The government previously mandated that university and graduate students must be included in each consortium.
This project aims to develop an independent Korean AI model to reduce reliance on overseas technologies. The government is providing concentrated support in the form of resources such as graphics processing units (GPUs), manpower, and budget. The initiative reflects the ambition to become one of the 'top three AI powerhouses'. This year, a budget of 200 billion KRW has been allocated.
Among the participants, LG AI Research, Naver Cloud, and Upstage are competing based on their own large language models (LLMs). Notably, Upstage's recently released LLM, 'Solar Pro2', ranked 12th overall (with a score of 58) in the intelligence index of the global AI analysis agency 'Artificial Analysis'. Kim Seonghoon, the founder of Upstage, previously led AI development at Naver. LG AI Research, which owns the Exaone series, is reportedly collaborating with LG Uplus, LG CNS, and other affiliates within the group. Naver has experience launching 'HyperCLOVA', the first domestic LLM, in 2021.
Additionally, SKT has recently joined the competition by releasing its LLM 'A.DotX 3.1 Lite' as open source. Since 2018, SKT has been developing Korean-language AI models, releasing KoBERT in 2019 and the GPT2 Korean model in 2020. SKT has formed a consortium with Krafton, Riner, and Rebellion. Krafton plans to integrate its AI technologies, such as voice synthesis, from the gaming sector.
The government plans to evaluate not only the performance of the AI models but also their openness and impact on the ecosystem. On July 14, Minister Baek Kyunghoon of the Ministry of Science and ICT stated during a parliamentary confirmation hearing, "The core of this project is to secure outstanding domestic foundation models and to create an open environment that startups, SMEs, and academia can utilize in various ways."
The Ministry of Science and ICT will first select 10 teams through a document review, then narrow the pool down to 5 teams in early August. Subsequently, teams will be further reduced, with the final 2 teams to be selected in 2027.
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