A little-known South Korean artificial intelligence start-up that has produced a large language model that performs as well as advanced systems made in the US and China is seeking to boost the Asian country’s goal of catching up lost ground in the global AI race.
Sung Kim, chief executive of Seoul-based Upstage, told the Financial Times that “American and Chinese LLMs used to be way out in front of everyone else, but that is no longer the case”.
The claim comes after the company’s Solar Pro 2, released in July, became the only Korean LLM to be recognised as a leading edge “frontier model” by independent benchmarking analysis provider Artificial Analysis.