U.S.-based knowledge-sharing platform provider Quora's AI chatbot service Poe, which chose Korean AI startup Upstage's large language model Solar as one of its main language models / Courtesy of Upstage |
By Baek Byung-yeul
Upstage's large language model (LLM) Solar has become a main language model for U.S. knowledge-sharing platform provider Quora's AI chatbot service, Poe, proving its competitiveness against leading generative AI services such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, the Korean AI startup said Monday.
Upstage said Solar stands for Specialized and Optimized LLM and Applications with Reliability. The language model is based on the company's generative AI capability, which took first place on Hugging Face's Open LLM Leaderboard competition with a score of 72.3 in August.
Operated by Quora, Poe is a global leading generative AI platform where users can use a variety of AI models and create their own chatbots.
Poe has access to thousands of generative AI models, including famous LLM models as well as models created by individuals, and only a few generative LLMs ― such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's PaLM, Meta's Llama and Anthropic's Claude ― are listed as main language models of the platform.
Adding Upstage's Solar to Poe's main language model is a first for Korea, and it is being recognized for its performance on par with other global leading generative AI companies, according to Upstage CEO Kim Sung-hoon.
"We believe that Upstage's Solar is a representative example of the technology and potential of Korean AI startups," Kim said. "We will work with Poe to introduce Solar to the global market and provide private LLM services in various fields."
Upstage intends for its LLM to provide specialized services to specific business customers, as it does for Poe. The company said it aims to provide private LLMs that offer specialized services and prevent information leaks.
In Korea, the company provides AI services to many enterprise customers. It has worked with e-commerce company Lotte Shopping, financial companies Hanwha Life, Samsung Life, KB and other companies in various industries, including POSCO, KT and LG Uplus.
"Based on Solar, the private LLM of Upstage will be customized to fit the characteristics and needs of enterprise customers, and will deliver greater performance in a lighter model size," the company said. "This will enable customers to significantly reduce the cost of deployment and operation of generative AI while increasing accuracy and security."