South Korea’s national artificial intelligence (AI) foundation model project, promoted as a cornerstone of the country’s push for AI sovereignty, has entered a critical phase after allegations surfaced that some leading participants relied on components from Chinese AI models. What began as a technical debate among developers has evolved into a broader policy question: how should “development from scratch” be defined in large-scale, government-backed AI projects? Two of the five consortia selected for the initiative—led by Naver Cloud and Upstage—have been drawn into the controversy. Both were accused by parts of the developer community of falling short of the project’s requirement to independently design and train core AI technologies.
What Counts as “From Scratch”? Korea’s AI Project Faces Its First Real Test
