South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT said on Wednesday that the main events of its National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Competition, AI Champion and AI Rookie, have formally opened after receiving applications from 1,124 teams and 3,611 people.

AI Champion is a competition for experts. A total of 403 teams and 1,350 people applied by April 24. Applications included 281 teams in the general track and 122 teams in the domestic AI track. After preliminaries, 50 teams from each track, 100 teams in total, advanced to the main round. The finalists comprise 55 corporate teams, 27 university teams, three each from research institutes, government and public institutions, and 14 others. The competition spans ICT and software, healthcare and bio, and manufacturing and industry. It will hold the main round in August and the final in November, followed by final awards in December. Total prize money is 2.6 billion won, and winners in each track will receive up to 500 million won.

AI Rookie for university students drew applications from 721 teams and 2,261 people by May 8. That included 434 teams in the general track and 287 teams in the domestic AI track. By university, Yonsei University had 40 teams, followed by Sejong University with 25, Soongsil University with 24, Sungkyunkwan University with 22 and Korea University with 21. Preliminary screening is under way, and 100 teams will be selected on May 29.

The competition added a domestic AI track. Participating teams must develop technologies and services using only models from domestic AI companies such as KT, LG AI Research, NC AI, SK Telecom and Upstage. Domestic AI companies plan to support participants with AI APIs and other resources.

Lee Do-gyu (이도규), director general for information and communications policy at the ministry, said the AI Champion and AI Rookie events are representative contests of the National AI Competition. He said he hopes outstanding technologies and services will be developed to lead the future of South Korea's AI industry.