[테크월드뉴스=김태윤 기자] Until now, Korean companies have remained relatively unnoticed in the race for generative AI services sparked by ChatGPT. However, interest in KR companies is growing as they prove their competitiveness based on technology.

▶ Proven Competitiveness Even in Foundational AI Language Models

First of all, in the language model market, where global companies such as Google, Microsoft, Meta, Mistral, OpenAI, and Anthropic are competing, Korean companies are also showing their presence. An example is the case of Exaone 3.0, a language model recently released as open source by LG AI Research.

In a report released by LG AI Research, Exaone 3.0 ranked first in 13 benchmarks, including real-world usability, coding, and math. In addition, it outperformed major models from global companies such as Meta's Llama 3.1 8B, Google's Gemma 2 9B, Alibaba Cloud's QWEN 2 7B, and Mistral AI's Mistral 7B, not only in Korean performance but also in English utilization, according to the company.

“We have continued our research and released upgraded models every year, and have achieved external commercialization,” said LG AI researchers. ”Between the two pillars of performance and cost, we have created models that can be better utilized by users and developed expert-level AI that can be applied to real-world industries.”

NAVER CLOUD PLATFORM's large language model. HyperClova X, outperformed a language model that is considered the best in the world for Korean language performance. According to NAVER CLOUD PLATFORM, HyperCLOVA X achieved a higher average score than GPT-3.5 Turbo and Gemini Pro in the Korean version of the AI performance evaluation metric KMMLU.

The company plans to develop HyperCLOVA X into a 'Sovereign AI' solution that combines security and performance. Sovereign AI refers to the movement of countries or companies to build their own LLMs to become AI sovereign.

▶ Telecom AI Capabilities Already Ranked No. 1

SK Telecom, which has announced plans to invest 250 million USD in equity in AI companies this year, has been ranked No. 1 in the world's major telecom AI index by market research firm Omdia, ahead of China Mobile and AT&T.

Currently, SKT is pursuing an “AI Pyramid” strategy to transform itself into an AI company centered on three areas: AI infrastructure, AI transformation, and AI services. In fact, SKT has announced its ambition to become an AI personal assistant by upgrading its AI service A.Dot, and has been investing in AI-related companies.

For example, SKT is investing in AI-related companies such as open AI competitor Anthropic, GPU cloud company Lambda, AI search engine startup Perplexity, and AI data center integration solution company SGH to build its value chain and enhance its competitiveness.

“SKT has put AI at the center of its strategy and has a comprehensive plan to adopt AI, from developing its own AI semiconductors and LLM to launching new AI-powered digital assistant services like A.Dot,” said Matthew Reid, senior analyst at OMDIA, in an interview with SKT.

▶Search Market Heats Up... Challenging Google and Perplexity

In the field of generative AI services dominated by global companies, some companies stand out.

In the case of global AI search engine Liner, it ranked ninth in terms of web traffic in the “TOP 100 Generative AI Consumer Apps” released by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), making it the only Korean AI service to make the list. According to Liner, it has 10 million subscribers in more than 220 countries around the world.

Its performance was particularly strong in the area of AI search services. The only service ranked higher than Liner is Perplexity, which has recently been criticized as a possible threat to Google's search market. “Liner AI search has the advantage of providing authoritative sources for each sentence in the answer,” said a company representative.

The industry assessed that Korean companies will be competitive if they can quickly respond to the changing AI market.

“Recently, customer needs have diversified, and ultimately, the utilization of generative AI is completely different depending on the user,” said an industry insider. ”If we can produce results that allow users to experience generative AI that is suitable for their intentions, we can increase our competitiveness in the global market.”