Naver’s HyperCLOVA X: More Korean-proficient than ChatGPT

South Korea’s online giant Naver Corp. will unveil an updated version of its AI platform HyperCLOVA, HyperCLOVA X, which it said better understands and more accurately responds to prompts in Korean than ChatGPT.

Naver Cloud, the artificial intelligence unit of the top Korean search engine operator, said on Monday it will launch the new hyper-scale AI platform in July with a view to creating an AI ecosystem tailored to Korean services.

An update to HyperCLOVA, which was launched in May 2021, HyperCLOVA X will allow users to easily combine their own information and data with HyperCLOVA to get more specific responses to their requests, the company said.

“The new AI platform will help individuals, companies and even countries use customized services, creating wider business opportunities,” Kim Yu-won, chief executive of Naver Cloud, said at Naver’s annual developer’s conference, DEVIEW.

STRENGTHS IN KOREAN LANGUAGE

The company said HyperCLOVA X has strengths in the Korean language since it has learned 6,500 times more Korean words than ChatGPT, a generative AI chatbot developed by Microsoft-backed OpenAI.

Thus HyperCLOVA X is more Korean user-oriented than English-based AI models, which have difficulty localizing Korean services, it said.

Naver has been working with Samsung Electronics Co. since late last year to develop a next-generation AI chip optimized for its hyper-scale AI platform.

Earlier this month, Naver said it will also unveil a beta version of its AI-powered search engine, SearchGPT, to compete with the likes of ChatGPT, in the first half of this year.

“Trustworthiness of the search results, connectivity with other Naver services and modality are the three keywords in our development of SearchGPT,” said Naver scientist Kim Young-bum.

Meanwhile, 19 Saudi Arabian government officials, including Alhassan Alhazmi, general manager of the Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence (SDAIA), on Monday visited Naver 1784, Naver Labs' robot-friendly headquarters, in Pangyo to discuss business cooperation.

Write to Seung-Woo Lee at leeswoo@hankyung.com

In-Soo Nam edited this article.