The Ministry of Science and ICT (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Bae Kyung-hoon) announced on the 11th that Epoch AI, a US nonprofit AI research organization, has listed all of the AI models developed in the first half of 2026 by the four elite teams of the ‘Sovereign AI Foundation Model’ project as ‘Notable Models.’ Currently, the only countries that hold a Notable Model selected by Epoch AI this year are the United States, China and South Korea.
 [코리안투데이] Homegrown sovereign AI foundation models listed among Epoch AI’s ‘Notable Models’ © 장형임 기자 |
The listing signifies that the domestic elite teams have earned international recognition for the achievements of their sovereign AI models, whose performance they raised to a higher level over the first half of the year.
Epoch AI’s ‘Notable Model’ metric is recognized as one of the leading measures for evaluating a nation’s AI competitiveness, serving for instance as a key indicator in the ‘AI Index’ report published annually by Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI). According to Stanford’s AI Index 2026 report, the number of notable models in 2025 was tallied at 59 for the United States, 35 for China and 8 for South Korea.
In particular, given that only three countries — the United States, China and South Korea — hold a Notable Model selected by Epoch AI in 2026, this achievement is assessed as a case demonstrating that South Korea has secured world-class AI competitiveness.
The ‘Sovereign AI Foundation Model’ elite teams developed competitive sovereign AI foundation models and released them as open source, even amid relatively limited resources and conditions compared with global Big Tech firms. Through this, they proved not only Korea’s AI technological capabilities but also its capacity to build an open ecosystem, the Ministry explained. Because open-source release allows domestic researchers and companies to freely use the models and expand them into applied services and follow-up research, it is expected to serve as a foundation for broadening the base of AI utilization across industry as a whole.
Deputy Prime Minister Bae Kyung-hoon said, ‘Sovereign AI models built with the Republic of Korea’s own technology are proving their global-level technological strength and showing their true potential,’ adding, ‘Now that we must compete shoulder to shoulder with leading nations on a larger stage, we will spare no support so that we can continue to deliver achievements that citizens can tangibly feel.’
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