The Ministry of SMEs and Startups said on the 11th it is recruiting startup corporations to take part in the 2nd AI+ Opendata challenge, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to solve tasks posed by public institutions.
Now in its second year, the challenge opens field data used by public institutions to AI startup corporations to discover AI models that help people's daily lives. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) will recruit startup corporations from today through June 5. Eligible applicants are corporations within 10 years of operation as of the announcement date. At the same time, for startup corporations interested in the challenge, a briefing session will be held from 2 p.m. on the 12th at the Korea Venture Investment Corporation (KVIC) conference room.
Six tasks have been set for this challenge. The task types are divided into contract-linked and general. The contract-linked tasks are: ▲ automatic generation of policy fund loan applications ▲ decision-making model for financial support to small business owners ▲ artificial intelligence model that generates startup corporations' growth histories. The general tasks are classified as: ▲ policy impact prediction analysis ▲ automated service to determine corporations engaged in innovation-driven industries ▲ market entry strategy recommendations.
The challenge proceeds in three stages: document screening, the main round, and final evaluation. Through document screening, 30 corporations (five per task) will advance to the main round.
The 30 startup corporations that advance to the main round will receive task-specific data information and begin developing their AI models. To support the corporations' technology development, each corporation will receive 20 million won for development and demonstration, and the necessary infrastructure for AI solution development, including graphics processing units (GPUs), will also be provided.
The final evaluation will reflect both an in-person review (expert evaluation) and assessments by a user test group composed of small business owners and officials related to small and medium-sized corporations. One corporation per task will be selected, for a total of six winning corporations.
AI solutions developed by the three winning corporations in the contract-linked tasks will be introduced to actual public service sites through purchase contracts with the sponsoring institutions. Regardless of task type, each of the six winning corporations will receive a prize of 1 billion won. The winners will receive preference when selected for support programs such as the startup package, the super-gap project, and research and development (R&D) for technological innovation.
Minister Han Seong-sook of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) said, "This challenge will serve as an opportunity to improve administrative services by combining public data with startup corporations' cutting-edge AI technologies," adding, "We will support capable AI startup corporations so they can fully demonstrate their capabilities."