There is a Korean artificial intelligence (AI) startup drawing attention from global big tech companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic. It is AIM Intelligence, which provides AI security solutions. Founded last July by CEO Yoo Sang-yoon, 28, AIM Intelligence builds solutions that serve as both the spear and the shield to protect AI. Yoo said the company is likely to gain more attention as AI's roles become more diverse and complex. We met Yoo on the 19th at the company's office in Seocho District, Seoul.
◇ Studying "responsible AI"… "AI security is the future"
Yoo, who holds a master's degree from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Seoul National University, studied responsible AI at school and heard from seniors that it felt like "welcoming the mobile era again after 10 years." Yoo said, "Technology cycles come every 10 or 15 years. Rather than becoming a part of a company at a time that favors starting a business, I wanted to found a company and contribute to the new era."
When Yoo said the company would pursue the AI security business, the reaction around him was lukewarm. Advice followed that improving performance should come before safety. But he countered that "AI you can trust to use will draw attention sooner or later." He recruited the competitor who placed second after him at a hackathon as chief technology officer (CTO). Friends who had built a Blockchain-based "zero trust" game together joined as chief product officer (CPO) and co-founders.
AIM Intelligence has two core products. The first is AIM Red, a Generative AI red-team solution. AIM Red explores and attacks AI models and AI-based services to find vulnerabilities. It is essentially a "white-hat hacker." Whereas humans previously verified safety by trying a few prompts (commands), AIM Red automatically generates and executes thousands of attack scenarios.
The second is AIM Guard, an AI guardrail service. AI guardrails are safety devices set to prevent AI from engaging in dangerous behavior. AIM Guard provides a customized AI solution that blocks problems that may occur in AI systems and services diagnosed by AIM Red.
Yoo explained, "AIM Red and AIM Guard work in tandem. The red team attacks to find vulnerabilities, the guardrail is improved to block them, and then the attacks are repeated. Through a kind of 'spear and shield' cycle, we continuously boost AI safety."
◇ Global big techs are watching… new product launch in the first half of next year
AIM Intelligence's technology has drawn attention from global AI companies. AIM Red from AIM Intelligence precisely diagnosed Anthropic's private AI model. The goal was to prevent Anthropic's model from outputting CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear) manufacturing methods. AIM Red caught the model generating weapons manufacturing methods by bypassing existing guardrails, and Anthropic reflected AIM Intelligence's solution in its company policy.
OpenAI also contacted AIM Intelligence to obtain external validation as it prepared its own guardrail system. Kim Kyung-hoon, head of OpenAI Korea, mentioned AIM Intelligence during a presentation at a recent OpenAI DevDay, introducing it as "a startup developing related technologies so that corporations can adopt AI safely."
With "physical AI" drawing attention as the next-generation AI technology, LG Electronics also joined hands with AIM Intelligence. AIM Intelligence, LG Electronics and U.S. robotics startup OpenMind are conducting joint research to define dangerous situations for physical AI and to build a dataset. AIM Intelligence also spent 60 million won to purchase a robot and build a testbed.
AIM Intelligence plans to launch a new AI safety solution early next year. It is a service that tracks and controls every action of AI agents. Yoo saw limits in current guardrail services that monitor inputs and outputs at the individual unit level in next-generation agent environments that perform complex actions. The new product will monitor in real time the entire action flow of AI agents as they search the internet or interact with external systems, instantly blocking dangerous actions that deviate from user intent.
The company has begun to see results just over a year since its founding. Yoo said, "This year's expected revenue is about 1.4 billion won," adding, "Financial institutions such as KB Kookmin Card, KB Securities and Woori Bank, as well as telecom companies like KT and LG Uplus, have adopted AIM Intelligence's AI security solutions."
AIM Intelligence attracted pre-series A investment in August, bringing its cumulative funding to 1.85 billion won, and is preparing an investment round early next year.