Consortium Members for Independent AI Foundation Model Revealed
14 Organizations and 40 Demand Companies Join...
"K-AI Big Tent Formed"
NCSoft's artificial intelligence (AI) subsidiary, NC AI, has revealed the members of the consortium participating in the development of an independent AI foundation model.
On July 31, NC AI announced that 14 organizations from industry, research, and academia have formed a consortium for independent AI development. The consortium is led by NC AI as the principal organization.
NC AI announced on the 31st that 14 organizations from industry, research, and academia have formed a consortium for independent AI development. Logos of companies and institutions participating in the NC AI consortium. Provided by NC AI
The participating companies and institutions in the consortium include POSCO DX, Lotte Innovate, HL Robotics, InterX, MediaZen, MBC, AIWorks, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), Korea University, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Seoul National University, and Yonsei University, among others.
An NC AI representative explained, "Our goal goes beyond simple technology development. We aim to lead language, culture, and industry standards, thereby securing both South Korea's digital sovereignty and national competitiveness."
The independent AI foundation model development project is a government initiative that provides intensive support in computing resources and manpower to develop a globally competitive independent AI foundation model. The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to finalize the selection of the winning teams after a review process in early August. Selected teams will be eligible for government support through a competitive evaluation. The government intends to provide the final elite teams with computing resources equivalent to 1,000 GPUs, as well as large-scale training data and funding for securing top talent.
The NC AI-led consortium is headed by NC AI, which has already developed and applied its proprietary foundation model, 'VARCO,' to services such as gaming and fashion.
Core research and development (R&D) will be carried out by KAIST, Seoul National University, Korea University, and Yonsei University. KAIST will be responsible for establishing the theoretical foundations of AI technologies such as 3D vision and robotics. Korea University will focus on developing post-training and optimization algorithms, while Seoul National University will provide high-quality motion data generation and comprehension technologies, taking charge of the core of physical AI. Yonsei University will be responsible for designing multimodal architectures and ensuring AI reliability and safety.
The technology development and dissemination group will be led by industry participants. ETRI will supply core pre-training and multimodal source technologies based on its experience in developing Korean language models such as KorBERT and EAGLE. Companies such as Lotte Innovate and POSCO DX will be responsible for final proof-of-concept and application of the developed technologies.
In the data acquisition sector, NC AI's in-house data team will collaborate with AIWorks, a company specializing in building and verifying AI training data, and Yonsei University, which has expertise in AI and data design frameworks, to construct datasets. Through this, they aim to secure data specialized for LLMs and multimodal applications.
The consortium is also accelerating optimization for model training and inference based on domestic neural processing units (NPUs). Through the largest AI semiconductor farm in Korea, currently being built by NHN Cloud, they will conduct proof-of-concept for domestic NPU optimization. Mobilint, an edge NPU startup and demand institution, will participate in verifying services that utilize edge devices (such as drones and robots) based on domestic NPUs.
In terms of talent development, the consortium has been selected as an implementing agency for the Ministry of Science and ICT's 'Generative AI Leading Talent Development' project. It plans to collaborate with Sogang University, KAIST, and Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) to focus on training practical AI professionals.
In August 2023, NC AI developed the VARCO LLM and became the first in Korea to list it on the AWS Marketplace, achieving global commercialization. More recently, it unveiled the visual language model (VLM) 'VARCO Vision 2.0.'
Lee Yeonsu, CEO of NC AI, stated, "True AI sovereignty is not about passive defense by simply avoiding reliance on foreign technologies, but about becoming a game changer who sets the stage and rules on the global stage. This consortium marks the beginning of South Korea's journey to secure AI leadership across technology, data, and industry, and to achieve synergy with national AI governance, contributing to the 'AI G3' goal."
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