Naver, LG, SK Telecom, NCSOFT, and Upstage will receive 200 billion won in support from the government to kick off the development of a 'national representative AI.'
The Ministry of Science and ICT selected five elite teams to continue the 'independent AI foundation model' project: ▲Naver Cloud ▲Upstage ▲SK Telecom ▲NC AI ▲LG AI Research Institute (in alphabetical order), it was announced on the 4th.
The independent AI foundation model project is a national initiative aimed at securing a Korean AI model that targets over 95% performance of the latest global AI models, including OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini. It is part of President Lee Jae-myung's major pledge of 'AI for all' and is considered a key project for realizing the national agenda of becoming a 'top three AI nation.' The five selected teams will receive a total government support of 200 billion won, including high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs), data, and labor costs.
In a competition that closed on the 21st of last month, a total of 15 places formed consortia to apply, and the Ministry of Science and ICT narrowed it down to 10 teams after a written evaluation on the 25th. Kakao and KT were also in the top 10, but they did not succeed in the presentation evaluation.
The Ministry of Science and ICT stated that the presentation evaluation comprehensively assessed the participating elite teams on ▲technical skills and development experience ▲excellence of development goals ▲development strategy and technological excellence ▲impact and contribution plans, among other factors. After a series of procedures including project cost review and adjustment, the elite teams will be finalized.
The Ministry of Science and ICT noted, "All five elite teams have demonstrated high-level AI model development capabilities, and they are evaluated as striving to develop and secure AI foundation models starting from the ground up to embody the essence of sovereign AI."
Additionally, the high-level open source policy designed to make AI accessible to everyone, and the ambitious targets such as multi-modal models and omni models that integrate and process diverse data are also noted to have received high scores.
◇ Agreement to be signed in early August… Reduction to four teams by the end of December
Looking at each team, the Naver Cloud elite team comprises Naver, Twelve Labs, the Seoul National University R&DB Foundation, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), the POSTECH Research and Business Development Foundation, the Korea University Research and Business Foundation, and the Industry-University Cooperation Foundation of Hanyang University. The goal is to secure a national common foundation intelligence that supports real-time interaction by integrating and understanding text, voice, image, and video data, while establishing an independent omni foundation model to expand national accessibility and industry dissemination.
The Upstage elite team includes Nota, Leblup, Flitto, VUNO, MakinaRocks, Law&Company, Okestro, Day 1 Company, Allganize Korea, the Financial Services Commission, the Sogang University Research & Business Foundation, and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). They plan to develop a global frontier-level independent AI foundation model to create a sustainable domestic AI ecosystem and secure global technological leadership and true AI technological sovereignty.
The SK Telecom elite team includes KRAFTON, 42dot, Rebellions, Liner, SelectStar, the the Seoul National University R&DB Foundation, and KAIST. They aim to promote Korea's AI transformation (AX) with next-generation transformer AI models while enhancing national AI accessibility and securing global AI leadership.
The NC AI elite team includes Korea University, Seoul National University, Yonsei University, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), AIWORKX, POSCO DX, LOTTE Innovate, HL Robotics, INTERX, Mediazen, Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), and NHN. They plan to develop global top-performance 200 billion-level independent large-scale language foundation model packages and integrated multi-modal cognitive generation foundation model packages based on independent large language models (LLM).
The LG Management Development Institute AI Research Institute elite team includes LG Uplus, LG CNS, Superb AI, Furiosa AI, FriendliAI, ESTsoft, ESTaid, HANCOM, and Wrtn Technologies. They have proposed to lead the AI diffusion ecosystem through the development of globally top-level frontier AI models.
The Ministry of Science and ICT stated that it plans to sign agreements with the five elite teams as early as early August and will start to develop and secure globally influential AI foundation models through the support of GPUs, data, and talent that each team wishes.
Additionally, the Ministry of Science and ICT plans to promote the first phase evaluation by the end of December based on the AI foundation models developed and secured by that time, aiming to narrow it down to four teams.