South Korea Debates AI Sovereignty Standards for Models

Jan. 8 (Asia Today) — South Korea's government-backed Independent Foundation Model initiative is facing a public dispute over what qualifies as 'sovereign' AI, with officials Ha Jung-woo and Bae Kyung-hoon overseeing a competition. Tensions flared after Upstage publicly released training logs and Naver acknowledged using China's Qwen encoder, prompting calls for clear domestic standards; officials praised transparency but industry warns of credibility and security risks.