The government’s “Independent AI Foundation Model (IAFM)” project, which aims to select a “national AI champion,” has added Motif Technology as an elite team. Motif Technology will participate in the second evaluation alongside the previously selected LG AI Research, Upstage, and SK Telecom.

On the 20th, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced that among the two consortia that took part in the additional call for the IAFM project—Motif Technology and Trillion Labs—it has selected Motif Technology as an elite team. The consortium includes 17 participating companies and public institutions, such as Motif Technology, More, Crowdworks, N.Light, the Seoul National University Industry-University Cooperation Foundation, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Hanyang University Industry-University Cooperation Foundation, Samil PwC, and the National Heritage Promotion Agency.

Motif Technology now leads the four remaining elite teams in terms of the number of participating institutions within its consortium and plans to support the spread of AI transformation (AX) across a wide range of public and industrial sectors. Evaluation committee members noted highly that the consortium has experience in independently proposing and implementing numerous core modules. They stated, “The level of technological internalization is considered high, as the consortium has been developing independent foundation models not only in text, but also in image and video domains,” adding, “The consortium composition also covers a wide spectrum of industries—including culture, housing, education, media, manufacturing, semiconductors, finance, defense, and pharmaceuticals—making it suitable in terms of technology diffusion and real-world validation.”

The government previously conducted the first evaluation and in January this year selected only three out of five elite teams (LG AI Research, Upstage, SK Telecom). Although the initial plan was to select four teams, only three remained after NC AI, which received the lowest score among the five, and Naver Cloud, which became embroiled in controversy for partly using a Chinese AI model, were both dropped. The government then held an additional call to fill the remaining slot, through which Motif Technology was newly selected.

The three existing elite teams have been developing their AI models from January through the end of June, while the newly joined Motif Technology will conduct development from its selection in February through the end of July. This is intended to provide all elite teams with an equal development period. Once all elite teams complete AI model development, the government plans to conduct the second evaluation in early August. Three teams will be selected in the second evaluation, and six months later, at the end of this year, a third evaluation will be held to select the final two elite teams.

Vice Prime Minister Bae stated, “Major big tech companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic were not initially large or globally recognized organizations,” adding, “Policy support will be provided generously so that the challenges taken up by all participants can keep our AI ecosystem vibrant, and through this, build a larger and more competitive AI ecosystem in the Republic of Korea.”

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