Stanford Highlights Eight Korean AI Models, Up from Five... All Independent Foundation Models Included

Reflecting Government Request... Third After US and China

The number of notable artificial intelligence (AI) models from South Korea included in the "AI Index 2026" released by Stanford University in the United States will be revised from the original five to eight. All five models that participated in the government's Proprietary AI Foundation Model Project have been included in the index.

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on April 23 that the Human-Centered AI Institute (HAI) at Stanford University, which released the AI Index on April 13, is set to revise the count after requesting additional verification of South Korean AI models launched last year.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT, Hoon Bae, is delivering a welcome speech at the first presentation of the 'Proprietary AI Foundation Model' project. Photo by Yonhap News

The eight AI models now scheduled to be reflected in the index are as follows: SOLAR Open 100B (Upstage), K-Exaone, Exaone 4.0 (32B), Exaone PASS 2.0, Exaone Deep (32B) (all from LG AI Research), BAEKI (NC AI), A.DotX (A.X) K1 (SK Telecom), and HyperCLOVA X Seed 32B Sync (Naver Cloud).

Among these, five models are the result of the Proprietary AI Foundation Model Project that the government has been promoting since last year. The Ministry of Science and ICT commented, "The performance of South Korean AI models is now being recognized at a global level."

In the previously released AI Index 2026 by Stanford HAI, South Korea ranked third in the world for the number of notable AI models launched last year, following the United States (50 models) and China (30 models).

No South Korean AI model was listed in the same report published in 2024. In last year's report, Exaone 3.5 from LG AI Research was the only South Korean AI model to be included.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.