[Digital Today reporter Ho-jung Lee] NC AI, a company specialising in industry-focused artificial intelligence (AI), has formed a large alliance to secure South Korea's physical AI competitiveness.

On Feb. 11, NC AI unveiled the K-Physical AI Alliance consortium as it joins the Information and Communications Technology Planning and Evaluation Institute (IITP)-led project, "World Foundation Model technology development for training physical AI models."

The consortium is led by NC AI and includes 15 joint research institutions such as domestic physical AI technology companies, universities and government-funded research institutes. It also brings together 38 demand-side institutions, including major conglomerates such as Samsung SDS, Lotte Innovate, Posco DX and Hanwha Ocean, as well as local governments in four major regions, for a total of 53 organisations.

The consortium's goal is to develop a "World Foundation Model (WFM)" and a "Robotics Foundation Model (RFM)." The core aim is to overcome physical hallucinations, a limitation of existing generative AI, and enable robots to understand and act in the real world.

NC AI will oversee the project based on simulation experience accumulated since its time at NCSoft and its 3D generative model, "Varco 3D." It plans to apply game development know-how to implement Sim2Real technology so that intelligence trained in virtual worlds operates without error in the real world.

Experts in each field will take part in the technology development. In robotics, Realworld, C-MES and Rainbow Robotics will participate, while FunctionBay will handle simulation technology. Config Intelligence, Munhwa Broadcasting Corp, Ndotlight and the Korea Electronics Technology Institute (KETI) will be in charge of data building and standardisation. In academia, KAIST, Seoul National University, Korea University and Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) will participate to provide a theoretical foundation.

The developed technology will undergo demonstrations at manufacturing and logistics sites of demand-side institutions such as Samsung SDS, Lotte Innovate and Posco DX. The plan is to build a virtuous cycle that feeds data generated in real-world sites back into AI training to bring forward the timeline for commercialisation.

NC AI said it aims to establish a Korean-style "sovereign AI" that is not dependent on global big tech through the consortium and to strengthen the competitiveness of South Korea's core manufacturing industries such as semiconductors, batteries and shipbuilding.

NC AI CEO Yeon-soo Lee (이연수) said, "This consortium is an unprecedented alliance that has gathered for a single goal: being the global No. 1 in physical AI." He added, "We will lay the foundation for opening a new 100 years of South Korean industry with unparalleled AI technology that connects the virtual and the real."