Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Gyeong-hun (배경훈) has spoken out over controversy surrounding the first-round evaluation results for the recent "independent AI foundation model" project. Bae stressed that the standard of technological sovereignty must be upheld.

Bae posted the message on his Facebook page on Monday. "As the minister in charge, I am also taking seriously the voices from the field, mixed with various concerns, about the companies that experienced the pain of elimination and about the reselection process," he said.

He also explained why the original plan to eliminate 1 team in the first-round evaluation was changed. In the latest first-round evaluation, Naver Cloud was eliminated after failing the independence assessment, along with NC AI, which failed the benchmark assessment.

"There are opinions that the evaluation criteria are excessively strict, and there are also critiques that the use of open source should be recognized more broadly," Bae said. "I fully sympathize with that awareness of the problem, but since this is a project aiming to be a 'national representative AI,' the standards must be clear," he added.

Bae stressed that technological sovereignty must be secured. "Dokpamo is not a project that requires 100 percent in-house technology," he said. "But core capabilities that we can control and improve even in a crisis, namely technological sovereignty, must be secured," he added.

He continued, "This evaluation was a process of confirming that principle, and we had no choice but to judge strictly whether the previously agreed implementation plan was being carried out," he said.

Finally, Bae said, "The goal the government pursues goes beyond being one of the top 3 technology powers. It is to make a country where the people make the best use of AI." He added, "Only when world-class technological capabilities and the execution ability to connect them to industry and services are equipped together will it be possible to become one of the top 3 AI powers."