NC AI, the artificial intelligence subsidiary of gaming giant NCSoft, said Wednesday that it has formed a consortium with major South Korean technology companies and research institutes to develop a foundation model for physical AI.
The initiative, named the K-Physical AI Alliance, was launched to participate in a government-backed project led by the Institute for Information & Communication Technology Planning & Evaluation.
The consortium brings together 53 organizations, including 15 core research institutions and 38 demand-side partners. Participating companies include Samsung SDS, Hanwha Ocean, Rainbow Robotics, Real World, CMES and FunctionBay.
The alliance aims to address "physical hallucination," a challenge where generative AI models fail to adhere to real-world physical laws. To this end, the consortium plans to develop a world foundation model and a robotics foundation model to support AI-driven control of robots and industrial equipment.
While global technology companies such as Nvidia and Google are also pursuing physical AI, the alliance said a key challenge in the field is the limited availability of high-quality data from real manufacturing environments.
The consortium plans to leverage South Korea's manufacturing infrastructure, including industries such as semiconductors, batteries, shipbuilding and automobiles, as well as the country's high robot density, to train models using data generated in industrial sites.
Under a full-stack collaboration structure, NC AI will lead the development by applying its large-scale simulation technologies and 3D generative model, Varco 3D. Partner companies will contribute specialized technologies across the development chain: Rlwrld and CMES will focus on the robotics foundation model, while FunctionBay will develop physics-based simulation technologies and Rainbow Robotics will provide dual-arm robotic platforms.
The developed models will be tested in operational environments provided by Samsung SDS, including manufacturing facilities, logistics centers, hotels and airports. Field data will be continuously fed back into the training process to improve model performance and reliability.
"This consortium brings together companies and research institutions to advance physical AI technologies by connecting virtual environments with real-world operations," said Lee Yeon-soo, chief executive officer of NC AI. "We will lay the foundation for the next 100 years of Korean industry by bridging the virtual and real worlds with unrivaled AI technology."
sunblessyou@heraldcorp.com
