KT said on the 29th that it released the Korea-tailored artificial intelligence (AI) model "SOTA K built on GPT-4o (hereafter SOTA K)," developed through strategic collaboration with Microsoft. The model was developed based on the GPT-4o model.
KT said existing large language models (LLMs) have limits in reflecting Korean and Korea's unique cultural context, so to resolve this it used large-scale, high-quality, Korea-specialized data and, through collaboration with Microsoft, advanced GPT-4o into a model optimized for Korean society.
SOTA K is a model that embodies the four core philosophies of Korean-style AI: ◇ protecting data sovereignty, ◇ understanding Korean culture, ◇ guaranteeing model choice, and ◇ safe and responsible AI. KT said it can naturally understand and generate not only Korean honorifics and dialects, but also specialized terminology used within specific domestic industries such as law, finance, and history. In particular, it reportedly achieved performance surpassing the GPT-4o model on South Korea's civil service exams and naturalization exams, which require advanced Korea-specific knowledge such as Korean history, the Korean language, and Korean statutes.
KT plans to first apply SOTA K to its own B2C (business-to-consumer) business to validate its in-house and collaborative model lineup, and then expand services to partners.
Youn Kyung-a, senior vice president and head of KT Agentic AI Lab, said, "SOTA K is an innovative model that simultaneously delivers global-level technological prowess and Korean AI specialization, and the technical know-how accumulated through collaboration with Microsoft will be broadly applied to the development of various KT AI models going forward," adding, "We will not only vitalize the domestic AI ecosystem but also lead innovation across the public and private sectors using AI, contributing to strengthening national AI competitiveness."