Attendees at the state-backed competition to create sovereign AI models, nicknamed “AI Squid Game,” in Seoul on Dec. 30.
Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/BloombergRebel Startups Challenge Conglomerates in Korea’s ‘AI Squid Game’
Motif Technologies and Upstage take on SK and LG in the race for a national AI foundation model.
While pursuing his doctorate in mathematics at the University of Oxford, Junghwan Lim watched many peers head deeper into academia or pivot toward lucrative careers in finance. But an encounter with DeepMind, later acquired by Google, inspired a more unconventional path: using his expertise in anabelian geometry, a formidable study spanning algebra, geometry and topology, to develop technology.
He returned home to Seoul and did stints as a data scientist at a gaming company and Samsung Research. Rather than settling into a comfortable career at a conglomerate, though, he soon ventured into the world of startups. Today, the 34-year-old is applying his polymathic background at Motif Technologies, a startup that’s emerged as a contender in the race to build South Korea’s national AI infrastructure.