[E-Daily Reporter Kim Hyun-ah ] Motif Technologies, which was eliminated from the second-stage evaluation of the Ministry of Science and ICT’s “Independent AI Foundation Model” (DOKPAMO) project, filed an appeal accompanied by a six-page statement; however, it has been confirmed that the government simply notified the company that the appeal had been “dismissed.”

According to Motif on the 10th, the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) notified the company that day of its decision regarding the “Appeal Against the Results of the Second-Stage Evaluation for the 2026 Independent AI Foundation Model Project,” which Motif had submitted on the 27th of last month.

However, the response contained in the official document Motif received consisted of just one word.

“Dismissed.”

In its appeal document, Motif did not request that the disqualification result be overturned. Across six pages, the company requested the disclosure of: △detailed scores for each evaluation item; △the method used to calculate benchmark scores; △the expert evaluation criteria and results; and △the user evaluation methodology and results.

However, the government’s response contained no specific explanation of which items were reviewed, which of Motif’s claims were rejected, or why the appeal was dismissed.

A Motif representative reacted by asking, “Is this all there is?” and “How are we supposed to interpret this?” The company had hoped the appeal would provide an explanation of the evaluation process but was instead simply notified of the result once again.

Motif was eliminated in the second evaluation announced on August 18. Three companies—SKTelecom, Upstage, and LG Corp.—were selected to advance to the next stage.

Motif’s concern centered not on the evaluation results themselves but on the basis for the evaluation. In response to the government’s explanation—that Motif 3 was eliminated despite receiving a high score on the AAII, a global AI model performance metric, because it received low ratings in expert and user evaluations—Motif demanded that the specific details of the evaluation be disclosed.

Motif 3’s AAII score was 47 points, ranking it 10th globally among model providers at the time and first when excluding the United States and China. Among the models participating in the Dokpamo program, Upstage scored 37 points, SKTelecom(017670) scored 35 points, and LG Corp.(003550) AI Research Institute scored 31 points.

The second round of the Dokpamo evaluation was conducted on a 100-point scale, consisting of 40 points for benchmarking, 35 points for expert evaluation, and 25 points for user evaluation. Motif requested the disclosure of detailed scores and evaluation criteria for each category, as well as the weighting methods used by AAII and NIA, the specific criteria for expert evaluation, and the user evaluation methodology and results.

In particular, Motif stated that during the expert evaluation process, it was asked questions such as whether the company was a “consortium lead” and whether “foreign capital or overseas corporations were participating as major shareholders with voting rights,” and requested an explanation of how these questions were reflected in the evaluation.

Motif stated, “This objection is not intended to argue that we should be selected for the DOKPAMO project,” adding, “We hope this will be a process to reach a consensus on the purpose of DOKPAMO and for participating companies to identify areas for improvement.” The company also announced its decision not to participate in the third round of DOKPAMO evaluations.

Dokpamo is a 530 billion won project (budgeted through 2027) promoted by the government to secure national AI competitiveness. The three consortia that passed the second evaluation will proceed to the next phase of the project.

Given the scale of this national project, there are calls for not only the evaluation results but also the evaluation process and the handling of appeals to be acceptable to the participating companies. In particular, if the only response to specific objections is a “dismissal,” it is difficult for eliminated companies to verify the fairness of the evaluation and the basis for the decision.

An official from the Ministry of Science and ICT stated, “I understand that the working-level staff plan to meet with Motif to provide a detailed explanation.”