Kakao Group on Monday unveiled the first results of an industry-academia collaboration project to identify innovative talent to lead the future artificial intelligence (AI) industry.

Kakao on Jan. 22 held the final round and awards ceremony for the "Four Science and Technology Institutes X Kakao AI Development Project" at the Kakao AI Campus in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. The project is the first implementation case of Kakao Group's 50 billion won regional AI ecosystem development plan announced in September last year.

A total of 66 teams of professors and students from four science and technology institutes took part: KAIST, GIST, DGIST and UNIST. Ideas were solicited for technology startups linked to Kakao's main businesses, including Kakao AI services and infrastructure, KakaoBank financial advancement, KakaoMobility future businesses and KakaoEntertainment core technologies.

A total of 13 teams presented in the final round, and the AnyBridge AI team from KAIST won the grand prize. The five final selected teams will receive a total of 39 million won in prize money, and all winning teams will be given up to 35 million won worth of "Kakao Cloud" credits per team. The teams will receive mentoring by business area through Kakao Investment's early-stage development programme over the next six months. Depending on results in technology advancement and business model specification, they will also be given an opportunity for follow-on investment consideration of up to 1 billion won per team.

Jang Yoon-joong (장윤중), chief executive of KakaoEntertainment, said in congratulatory remarks, "We confirmed many ideas that do not remain at the research stage and can expand into actual industry." He added, "We hope this project will become a starting point for AI technology to meet the market." Baek Jun-ho (백준호), chief executive of FuriosaAI, also attended and gave a special lecture sharing practical vision and insights with prospective founders.

Kim Do-young (김도영), chief executive of Kakao Investment, said, "We were able to glimpse the potential to link the research capabilities held by the four science and technology institutes with Kakao's service and investment experience." He added, "We will not make this a one-off competition, but carry it forward into a sustainable AI talent and startup development model."

Kakao Group plans to use the project as a starting point to advance its AI talent development system based on industry-academia cooperation and to continue support so that a regional deep-tech ecosystem can grow stably.