An artificial intelligence model built on Upstage's Solar open model will be deployed in the South Korean government's review of research and development (R&D) budgets.
The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) said Friday that it will begin using a "budget review-specific AI" based on the Solar open model this year. Each year, the government mobilizes 166 budget review officials across 10 technology fields under the operating committee of the Presidential Advisory Council on Science and Technology to examine next year's national R&D project plans. These officials spend considerable time closely reviewing more than 1,000 projects, checking for duplication and offering opinions.
"Specialist committee members and staff review hundreds of pages of planning reports and draft hundreds of pages of review opinions," said Park Sang-min, director of the MSIT's R&D budget coordination division. "They face time pressure while conducting multi-layered reviews of many projects within limited time."
For this reason, Bae Kyung-hoon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT, proposed using AI in the review of national R&D budgets upon taking office last year.
The specialized AI was developed through collaboration between the MSIT, the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI), and the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), using Upstage's Solar open model. The model was trained on data accumulated over the past five years, including national R&D project budget requests, planning reports, and specialist committee review opinions. The specialized AI will support project keyword and context analysis, meeting minutes summarization, and draft preparation of coordination result reports.
Through the introduction of this specialized AI, the MSIT aims to strengthen its "paperless budget review" environment. Using budget review data to be accumulated going forward, the ministry also plans to support enhanced project planning capabilities across ministries, the identification of multi-agency collaboration projects, and the optimization of the national R&D investment portfolio.
