LG AI Research said K-EXAONE passed the second-stage evaluation of the Ministry of Science and ICT-led independent AI foundation model project on Tuesday. It said the milestone has laid the groundwork to develop a flagship-scale, ultra-large foundation model that can compete in global markets.

LG AI Research stressed that the second-stage evaluation is meaningful because it secured a technology base to train and operate very large models stably while also improving response quality and usability performance that users can actually feel.

LG AI Research plans to use the technology secured in this stage to develop K-EXAONE into a frontier-class expert AI model representing South Korea. It also aims to secure a technical base to compete with global leading models beyond the domestic market.

LG AI Research plans to hold a talk concert in a month and explain its future technology development direction in detail.

Lim Woo-hyung (임우형), co-head of research at LG AI Research, said, "To compete on equal footing with global frontier-class models, significantly expanding model scale was inevitably a strategic choice we had to pursue." He said, "Because it is difficult to narrow the technology gap with global big tech with only small models, we will continue the challenge with the goal of delivering performance that is equal to or better at the same scale class."