South Korea's 'National AI' project narrows to three teams after second evaluation

South Korea's quest to develop a "national AI" foundation model has narrowed to three contenders: Upstage, SK Telecom, and LG AI Research. Motif Technologies was eliminated in the second round of evaluations for the 'Domestic AI Foundation Model Project' (Dokpamo).

The second evaluation phase assessed teams on benchmark performance (40%), expert review (35%), and user evaluation (25%). The benchmark component included scores from the Korea Intelligent Information Society Promotion Agency (NIA) and the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (AAII). NIA's evaluation covered Korean language, math, knowledge, long-form comprehension, and instruction following, alongside safety and reliability. AAII's index focused on nine challenging benchmarks across agent capabilities, coding, scientific reasoning, and general knowledge.

Expert evaluations were conducted by a committee of AI specialists, assessing development strategy, technical achievements, and future plans. User feedback was gathered from 200 members of the public selected through a nationwide call, alongside AI experts. Despite Motif's 'Motif3' topping the domestic models in the Intelligence Index with 47 points, it was ultimately eliminated due to lower scores in other evaluation areas.

"Based on the comprehensive second-stage evaluation, three of the four elite teams have advanced to the next stage by a narrow margin," stated the Ministry of Science and ICT. The government launched the Dokpamo project in June last year to reduce dependence on foreign AI technology and achieve technological sovereignty.

Initially, five consortia were selected, but Naver Cloud and NC AI were eliminated in the first stage. Motif Technologies was later re-added after an additional call for proposals, bringing the total back to four teams. All four teams' models were recognized on Epoch AI's "Notable AI Models" list.

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Based on the comprehensive second-stage evaluation, three of the four elite teams have advanced to the next stage by a narrow margin.