LG AI Research Chief: "Exaone Powers New Material and Drug Development, Legal Risk Analysis"

Im Woohyung, Head of LG AI Research Institute, Presents at KES 2025
Exaone Model Applications Inside and Outside LG Group
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"Making experts more professional, and ordinary people like experts"

Im Woohyung, head of LG AI Research Institute, stated during his keynote speech at the Korea Electronics Show (KES 2025) held at COEX in Seoul on the 21st, that the company aims to achieve this goal through artificial intelligence (AI) technology. The company’s proprietary super-large AI model, Exaone, is being used in a wide range of fields both inside and outside LG Group, including new material development, new drug discovery, and legal risk analysis.

Im Woohyung, head of LG AI Research Institute, is introducing the company's developed ultra-large artificial intelligence (AI) model Exaone during the opening keynote presentation at Korea Electronics Show (KES 2025) held on the 21st. Photo by Kim Bokyung

LG AI Research Institute is an independent research organization established by LG Group in 2020 to enhance the group’s AI capabilities. Im explained that Exaone 1.0, first announced in December 2021, has been gradually improved, and in July this year, the advanced 4.0 version with enhanced reasoning capabilities was released.

Exaone 4.0 is a hybrid model for general reasoning and has demonstrated performance by passing six different national certification exams, including for doctors. With over 8 million cumulative downloads, Exaone has set the record for the most open-source downloads among domestic AI models.

Im introduced cases where the base Exaone model was fine-tuned for specific applications and delivered practical value in real work scenarios. For example, 'Chat Exaone,' used by about 60,000 employees-representing 75% of all LG Group staff-supports tasks such as email translation, summarization, and document analysis.

Before launching new businesses, the in-depth AI agent conducts preliminary research or compiles reports based on numerous documents, actively interacting with users by asking, "Shall we proceed with the work in this way?"

Im said, "Chat Exaone, equipped with deep research capabilities, now delivers performance nearly on par with the services of leading global companies."

Previously labor-intensive tasks, such as selecting AI training data, are now also handled by AI. Im explained, "If you provide a large amount of raw data and give guidance on how to organize it, 'Data Foundry' will automatically extract the materials for the AI model to learn from."

AI is also being used in new material and new drug development. Im said, "AI can guide us on what efficacy a new material might show, how to design it to achieve the desired properties, and how to develop new drugs."

LG Chem uses Exaone in the process of manufacturing petrochemical products, LG Household & Health Care uses it to discover new cosmetic ingredients, and LG CNS utilizes it when entering public projects.

Another task for Exaone is to assess legal risks, such as copyright issues, when using online information as AI training data. Im noted, "Previously, legal staff had to review everything manually, but now the AI agent can analyze whether there are any legal risks."

Meanwhile, LG AI Research Institute is participating as a consortium member in a government project to develop proprietary AI foundation models, aiming to achieve world-class performance. He added, "We are working not only within LG Group but also with other partner companies to build an ecosystem," and "AI will be incorporated into everyday life and provide support in various fields such as finance, education, and legal affairs."