SK Telecom, Korea's largest wireless carrier in terms of subscribers, and gaming giant Krafton have unveiled three open-source language models optimized for inference tasks such as mathematics and code generation, the companies said on Monday.
The newly released models are lightweight language models tailored to problem-solving and programming tasks. Developed through collaboration, the models boasting 7 billion parameters incorporate a proprietary learning technique crafted by Krafton to improve reasoning and accuracy. Parameters indicate a large language model's complexity. They can range from millions to trillions depending on the model's application.
One of the models demonstrated performance improvement on the AIME 25, a prominent benchmark for mathematical reasoning. The companies say the models open new avenues for expanding artificial intelligence technologies in gaming, particularly in areas such as gameplay analysis and strategic decision-making.
The two firms jointly developed the models; SK Telecom oversaw infrastructure and data validation while Krafton focused on training technique innovation. The partnership is seen as a successful demonstration of domain-specific AI capabilities, the firms said.
The gaming giant developed a novel method called “answer review learning,” which enhances model performance by identifying and learning from incorrect answers in training data. SK Telecom contributed by providing robust infrastructure and ensuring high model stability and data integrity.
Looking ahead, Krafton plans to apply the advanced training method to game-specific AI technologies, enabling smarter decision-making and player behavior analysis. The company also aims to develop language models of various scales, contributing to Korea’s pursuit of AI sovereignty and ecosystem independence.
“The latest collaboration laid the foundation for Korea’s sovereign AI strategy by creating a high-performance language model based on the strengths of both companies,” said Kim Ji-won, head of SK Telecom's AI model lab. “We will continue our close cooperation to secure leadership in AI technology.”
The two companies are also participating in the government-led AI foundation model project, with SK Telecom leading the consortium and Krafton joining as a key partner.
yeeun@heraldcorp.com
