South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT and the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) said on Monday they will recruit 200 members for a public review panel for the "Homegrown AI Foundation Model" project.

The project is a programme in which the public and private sectors cooperate to develop a homegrown AI model at a global level. In the second-stage assessment in August, user evaluations involving the public review panel will be conducted alongside benchmark tests and expert reviews.

Applications for the public review panel will be accepted from Monday through 6 p.m. on Aug. 4. Any member of the public can apply, and the panel will be selected based on quotas by gender and age using resident population statistics.

Selected panel members will use homegrown AI models developed by four elite teams, LG AI Research, Upstage, SK Telecom and Motif Technologies, from Aug. 8 to 11. They will then rate the models using an absolute evaluation method.

The results will be reflected in the second-stage assessment of the Homegrown AI Foundation Model project. Detailed evaluation criteria and results are expected to be released in August.

Those who wish to participate can apply via a QR code included in a post on NIPA's website.