LG AI Research, SK Telecom, Upstage survive next cut in national AI model project

The South Korean government has narrowed down its state-backed project to create a domestic AI foundation model to three leading teams. These teams, led by LG AI Research, SK Telecom, and Upstage, emerged victorious after the second evaluation of four contenders. Motif Technologies, a startup that performed exceptionally well on global benchmarks, was unfortunately eliminated despite its strong performance.

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced the decision on Tuesday, stating that the three selected consortia advanced through the second assessment, which considered benchmark performance, expert reviews, and user experience. The project, initiated last year with the aim of developing homegrown AI models to rival leading models from the United States and China, initially chose five teams for the first stage.

However, after the first evaluation in January, two teams led by Naver Cloud and NC AI were removed from the competition. Motif Technologies entered the competition via an additional selection process to fill the vacant spot. The four remaining teams submitted their latest models for the second-round assessment, which included LG AI Research's K-EXAONE 2.0, SK Telecom's A.X K2, Upstage's Solar Open2, and Motif's Motif 3.

All four teams had developed internationally competitive models, but the government ultimately decided to focus its resources on the three selected teams.