Credit: Public domain.
On August 4, the Ministry of Science and ICT 과학기술정보통신부 announced the five South Korean corporations that won the bids for the new Korea IT Fund, which would deploy grants to develop domestic capabilities for artificial intelligence. The five winners, Naver 네이버, LG, SK Telecom, NC and Upstage 업스테이지, would collectively receive a grant of up to KRW 200b (USD 144m) to purchase graphics processing units (GPUs), the building blocks of AI engines.
The fund is the first step in the Lee Jae-myung 이재명 administration’s “Sovereign AI Project,” to develop independent AI models and avoid total dependence on other international AI engines such as ChatGPT. The goal for the project is to develop an AI engine whose performance is at 95% or better than that of the world’s leading AI engine. The project will conduct a review every six months to eliminate the poorest performing participant, narrowing the group to two final winners by 2027 for an additional grant of up to KRW 300b (USD 220m).
