“World’s Best LLM” Development Project
The Ministry of Science and ICT announced that from the 20th of this month until July 21, they are inviting domestic elite teams to participate in the “Independent AI Foundation Model” project. The ministry is officially launching the project, tentatively named World’s Best Large Language Model (WBL).
This call for participation, co-organized with the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA), the National Information Society Agency (NIA), and the Institute for Information and Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP), targets skilled domestic AI companies and institutions, allowing for consortium formation. From the perspective of nurturing future AI talent, participation from university and graduate students is mandatory. Up to 5 teams will be selected, with a competitive elimination process planned.
The project aims for at least 95% performance compared to the latest global AI models launched within the last six months. Participating elite teams can actively propose specific development strategies and methodologies. The goals and methodologies will adopt a “moving target” approach for each phase of evaluation to respond to the rapidly changing AI technology environment. They will be required to present plans that contribute to enhancing public AI accessibility and supporting AI transitions in public, economic, and social sectors, which will be reflected in the selection evaluation. The matching rate of teams will vary based on the size of the participating companies and the level of open source involvement.
Participating teams are free to propose the resources they wish to use for developing the independent AI foundation model, but appropriate scale support will be examined through subsequent evaluations. In terms of graphic processing units (GPUs), support will be provided by renting private GPUs until the first half of next year (worth 157.6 billion KRW), and after that, 10,000 units purchased by the government (via budget reinforcement) will be utilized. Each team will have access to annual joint data purchases worth 10 billion KRW and 3 to 5 billion KRW for building and processing data. Additionally, matching support of up to 2 billion KRW annually will be provided for human resources, research expenses, and living costs to attract excellent international researchers.
The Ministry of Science and ICT will establish an evaluation committee with AI experts from various fields domestically and internationally to select teams that align with the project’s objectives. The vision is to disseminate the independently developed, open source-oriented foundation models within the domestic AI ecosystem. Collaboration with the AI Safety Research Institute will support safety verification, and names like “K-AI Model” and “K-AI Company” can be used to enhance global credibility and accelerate global market entry.
Song Sang-hoon, Director of the Information and Communication Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Science and ICT, stated, “This project aims to secure technological sovereignty for Korea in the AI era and build an ecosystem for mutual growth, beyond the simple development of an independent AI foundation model. We expect this to be a starting point for Korea to emerge as an AI powerhouse, with top-tier domestic AI elite teams rising to the challenge to secure and disseminate global-level independent AI foundation models.”