The 'Independent AI Foundation Model' project, which selects the 'National AI Representative,' has set sail. Five consortiums have been selected as the first lead operators, and they will engage in a tournament-style competition where one team is eliminated every six months. By the end of 2026, only two will earn the title of National AI Representative.

Naver Cloud is considered a strong candidate among the five elite teams selected as the first lead operators. During a meeting on the 12th at Naver Cloud's office in Bundang, Seongnam, Sung Nak-ho, Head of Hyperscale Technology at Naver Cloud, expressed confidence that they could meet these expectations.

The source of his confidence can be summed up in one word: 'omnimodal.' A recent 'hot trend' in the AI industry, omnimodal combines the words 'omni,' meaning all, and 'modal,' meaning form. It refers to AI that can comprehensively understand various forms of information, such as text, photos, and videos, and provide contextually appropriate responses. It is considered the form most similar to how humans view and understand the world. Sung explained, "While multimodal, which was previously popular, added 'eyes (photos, videos, etc.)' and 'ears (audio)' to a text-centered large language model (LLM), omnimodal is the first to synthesize all information coming through eyes and ears to produce results."

According to his explanation, omnimodal is much easier to apply to various industrial fields, such as 'Physical AI' and 'Manufacturing AX,' which are considered future growth engines. It is a natural outcome that omnimodal, which learns by seeing with eyes, outperforms multimodal, which first learns robot movements through text.

This ultimately aligns with the government's final goal of the Independent AI Foundation project. The aim is to develop a unique Korean AI model to innovate by applying AI to Korea's major industries, such as manufacturing. Sung stated, "There is a definite demand for domestic AI in industries related to national security, which is sensitive to data leakage," explaining why the government emphasizes 'Sovereign AI.' He expressed his determination to demonstrate the potential of the original 'Sovereign AI' through the National AI Representative selection.

The omnimodal AI emphasized by Sung is closely related to Naver's future business models. Naver, identified as the company with the most 'Graphics Processing Units (GPUs)' in Korea, has invested its resources in this project for this reason. Sung stated, "We refer to it as 'Plus X,' and having an omnimodal AI model makes it easier to develop AI specialized for various industries."

He used the navigation system as an example. Many AIs develop LLMs based on text, the easiest data to obtain, and then add map data, which can lead to 'hallucination' phenomena. Sung emphasized, "In the case of a navigation system used in autonomous vehicles, even a small error can lead to a major accident," highlighting the significant advantages of omnimodal AI. The goal is to establish a large framework AI that can assist in developing 'Vertical AI (specialized AI)' in various fields, such as navigation AI, physical AI, and manufacturing AI.

Naver is planning an AI agent platform that can gather these 'Plus X' AIs developed in the long term. Sung explained, "Many users use multiple AI agents, but they need to input user information or interests anew each time for the AI agent to understand the context," and "the core of the AI agent platform is to eliminate this inconvenience by sharing the information (logs) that users searched through a platform that gathers multiple AI agents."

As specialized AIs increase, the demand for using various types of AI also rises. Naver aims to build an AI agent platform business that maximizes user convenience in preparation for this. Sung stated, "Omnimodal AI serves as the foundation for developing Plus X, and increasing accessibility to users through the platform can greatly contribute to expanding the domestic AI ecosystem."

Sung added that he hopes the National AI Representative project will lead to the development of AI that can be used universally by the public. Currently, frontier AIs being developed by big tech companies are highly performant but very expensive. The monthly usage fee for 'Grok 4' by xAI, founded by Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, is $300 (approximately KRW 420,000). Sung stated, "There may be demand for this, but would the general public pay tens of thousands of won to solve a single math problem?" and "Our goal is to segment the AI market to develop AI with performance and price levels that the public can use universally."

He predicted that national competitiveness would also be strengthened by the public using AI. Previously, Goldman Sachs projected that AI would boost the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 7%. Sung stated, "We believe that 3-4% of the 7% could occur in the domestic market." This implies that AI developed by domestic companies, including Naver, could also contribute to domestic GDP growth.

Sung stated, "We want to help enhance the public's AI capabilities through the 'service' method that Naver excels at (based on AI)."

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