In the national AI development initiative, the Naver Cloud consortium and the NC AI consortium have been eliminated. Upstage, SK Telecom, and LG AI Research will continue their development.

In August last year, the Ministry of Science and ICT launched the 'Sovereign AI Foundation Model Project' (hereinafter 'National AI') with the goal of developing a homegrown Korean AI model comparable to global AI models (such as Gemini and ChatGPT). In October, five entities were selected: Naver Cloud, Upstage, the SK Telecom consortium, the NC AI consortium, and the LG AI Research consortium. Krafton was included in the SK Telecom consortium.

The results of the first evaluation for the National AI project were unveiled on the 15th. The Ministry of Science and ICT stated that they conducted a comprehensive evaluation by mixing benchmarks, expert reviews, and user feedback, taking into account AI model performance, usability, and potential ripple effects in real-world applications.

As a result, four teams—LG AI Research, Naver Cloud, SK Telecom, and Upstage—were selected, with LG AI Research receiving the highest overall score. NC AI was eliminated for failing to meet the criteria. Naver Cloud met the passing score but was disqualified due to failing the 'sovereignty' criteria. The Ministry of Science and ICT emphasized ethical and policy standards, stating, "AI developed by fine-tuning overseas models is not included, and the use of open-source models must be disclosed with references."

However, the Ministry of Science and ICT plans to recruit one additional elite team in the future. Opportunities will be given to consortia that applied for the initial project, those that did not meet the criteria in the first evaluation, and other capable companies.

Meanwhile, the National AI project will compete through intermediate evaluations every six months. Two teams will be eliminated by 2026, and the final two teams are planned to be selected in 2027.