Seoul: The science ministry on Tuesday hosted a kick-off ceremony announcing the launch of a mission to develop homegrown artificial intelligence (AI) foundation models as part of the government's goal of making the country one of the global leaders in the field. The event came after South Korea selected five local consortiums in August to develop AI foundation models, which refer to large-scale systems trained on broad data that can be used to perform different tasks.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the five consortiums are each led by Naver Cloud Corp., Upstage, SK Telecom Co., NC AI Co., and LG AI Research, and will receive state support. "We would like to ask the companies to take on a greater challenge to develop AI for everyone, and for the growth and expansion of South Korea's AI ecosystem," Science Minister Bae Kyung-hoon said.

During the event, Kim Yu-won, head of Naver Cloud, mentioned that his team will work to develop an AI system suited to South Korea's social and cultural contexts. "Under the mission of being responsible for South Korea's AI future, we are deeply committed to generating results that people can be proud of," Lim Yoo-hyung, who leads LG AI Research, added.

On the previous day, South Korea launched the National AI Strategy Committee, chaired by President Lee Jae Myung, with the goal of making the country one of the world's top three AI powerhouses.