Deputy Prime Minister Baek Kyung-hoon, who also serves as minister of science and ICT, described the raising of suspicions about Upstage and the public verification process as a positive self-correcting function of the AI ecosystem.

In a post on his Facebook page on Jan. 3, he said, "Watching the technical debate that has heated up the AI industry, I instead saw a bright future for South Korean AI."

Upstage has faced allegations that it joined the government’s "independent AI foundation model" project with a model fine-tuned from a large language model (LLM) of a Chinese company. Upstage held a public verification briefing session on Jan. 2 and rebutted the allegations raised.

Baek said, "Innovation becomes stronger through transparent and intense verification." He added that data-based analysis of how a particular model was developed, and a company answering through public verification, show the AI ecosystem already has global-level "self-correction" and "technical transparency."

He said an active public forum would become the most powerful nourishment for South Korean AI to leap into a trusted "AI powerhouse" in the global market. He stressed that such a forum should be further activated.

The Ministry of Science and ICT is evaluating five elite teams in the independent AI foundation project through Jan. 15. Baek ended by asking people to keep watching and to support the growth and development of South Korean AI companies.

Meanwhile, Ko Seok-hyun, CEO of SionicAI, who raised the allegations, conveyed an apology after Upstage’s briefing session. He said, "I sincerely apologize for causing unnecessary confusion and controversy by making it public without more rigorously verifying the basis."