"AI Champion" and "AI Rookie" Tournaments Kick Off with 3,611 Participants and Enthusiastic Response

AI Champion Offers Total Prize Pool of 2.6 Billion Won

Competition Website Surpasses 380,000 Visitors

Paik Kun-hoon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on May 21 that the main competitions of the "National AI Competition," namely the "AI Champion" and "AI Rookie" tournaments, have commenced with strong interest from industry, academia, researchers, and university students. A total of 1,124 teams and 3,611 participants from universities, companies, and research institutes have joined this competition.

The "AI Champion" tournament, which is open to experts, closed applications on April 24, drawing 403 teams and 1,350 participants, signaling fierce competition ahead. By track, 281 teams applied for the General Track and 122 teams for the Domestic AI Track. Through the preliminary screening, 50 teams from each track—100 teams in total—have advanced to the finals.

The finalists include 55 from companies, 27 from universities, 3 from government or public agencies, 3 from research institutes, and 14 others (individuals). The selected projects span diverse industries such as ICT/software, healthcare/biotech, and manufacturing/industrial sectors. These finalist teams will compete in the finals screening in August and the grand finals in November, culminating in the final awards ceremony in December. The total prize pool for the "AI Champion" tournament is 2.6 billion won, and the winners of each General and Domestic AI track can receive up to 500 million won each.

The "AI Rookie" tournament, targeting university students, accepted applications until May 8, with a total of 721 teams and 2,261 participants registering for the challenge. By track, 434 teams applied for the General Track and 287 for the Domestic AI Track. By university, the highest number of applications came from Yonsei University (40 teams), Sejong University (25 teams), Soongsil University (24 teams), Sungkyunkwan University (22 teams), and Korea University (21 teams). Preliminary screening for the "AI Rookie" tournament began on May 12, and the final 100 teams that will advance to the finals are scheduled to be selected on May 29.

This year's competition newly established the "Domestic AI Track." Teams participating in this track must develop technologies and services using only the AI models provided by domestic AI companies (KT, LGAI Research Institute, NC AI, SK Telecom, Upstage). These companies plan to provide full support, such as AI application programming interfaces (APIs), to facilitate the teams' development work.

Meanwhile, since March 24, the "National AI Competition" has hosted various events such as the AI Quiz, AI Bug Hunt, and AI Use Case Contest, with over 100,000 participants to date. The competition website has attracted more than 380,000 visitors.

Registration opened on May 18 for the "AI Creation Competition," where participants use AI generation tools to create content such as children's stories, songs, and webtoons, and for the "Robotics Challenge," which solves real-life tasks using AI and robotics. On May 27, "Click-on AI," an online interactive content experience that allows participants to engage with AI as if playing a game, will begin.

Lee Dokyu, policy chief at the Ministry of Science and ICT, stated, "The AI Champion and AI Rookie tournaments are the flagship competitions of the 'National AI Competition' for Korea's top AI experts and university students. We hope that Korea's leading AI talent will fully demonstrate their abilities, leading to the development of outstanding technologies and services that will drive the future of our nation's AI industry."

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