A total of 14 Korean startups were selected by OpenAI as finalists for future collaboration opportunities with OpenAI, the Silicon Valley company famous for developing ChatGPT.

On December 15th, the Korean Ministry of SMEs and Startups held the 'OpenAI and Korean Startup Matching Day' awards ceremony at the Swiss Grand Hotel in Seoul, announcing the results of the selection of 14 finalists to participate in the main event to be held in the United States in the first half of next year.

The collaboration between domestic startups and OpenAI began when Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, visited Korea as part of his global tour in June. At that time, Altman attended a meeting with domestic startups organized by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and said, "I have great expectations for cooperation with Korean companies." Subsequently, OpenAI accepted the proposal from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups to host a collaboration program.

To select startups for potential collaboration with OpenAI, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups started recruiting AI startups last month targeting promising companies founded within the past 10 years. The final selection was extremely competitive as more than 220 of the most promising AI companies applied to this program. 

Applications were accepted in two categories: 'API Utilization,' which involves developing new services using OpenAI's API (Application Programming Interface), and 'General Collaboration,' which proposes new business and collaboration models with OpenAI through the convergence of new technologies, including AI semiconductors, robots, mobility, and other AI technologies.

In the 'API Utilization' category, nine companies including MarinaChain, Cliwant, NEXTPAY, DKMediInfo, hilokal, Waddle, Turing, Liner Brain, and Weraser were selected. MarinaChain, which provides carbon software and service solutions for the shipping industry, proposed building a logistics supply chain platform using AI technology targeting gas terminals, shipyards, and shipowners.

In the 'General Collaboration' category, five companies including BOS Semiconductors, Learn-Korean-in-Korean, Asleep, Furiosa AI and Ninewatt were selected. Learn-Korean-in-Korean, which is a startup that operates a Korean language education service based on voice recognition, was selected by emphasizing their own proprietary dataset to enhance the Korean language proficiency of ChatGPT.

The 14 startups selected as finalists will visit the OpenAI's headquarters in Silicon Valley next year to participate in developer meetings, among other activities organized by OpenAI. Final selection for collaboration with OpenAI will be made among the finalists. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will also provide government support fuding for these startups.