South Korea’s LG Launches ‘Hybrid Reasoning’ AI Model
LG AI Research, the AI research unit of LG, announced the launch of hybrid reasoning AI model Exaone 4.0 on July 15, 2025.
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LG Group, one of Korea’s largest conglomerates, has unveiled a new version of its flagship AI model that can generate either a quick response to queries or produce answers using a step-by-step reasoning process.
Dubbed Exaone 4.0, the hybrid AI model is developed by LG AI Research. In a statement on Tuesday, LG AI Research said Exaone 4.0 outperforms Alibaba’s Qwen 3, Microsoft’s Phi-4-reasoning-plus and Mistral AI’s Magistral-small-2506 in maths, science and coding, citing several industry benchmarks, but lags behind DeepSeek’s R1. The comparison didn’t include top-tier models like OpenAI’s GPT and Anthropic’s Claude.
LG AI Research said Exaone 4.0 can handle requests in Spanish, in addition to Korean and English. It added that Exaone 4.0 supports an increasingly popular technology called Model Context Protocol, which enables AI models to communicate with external apps, setting the stage for AI agents capable of performing complex tasks.
Exaone 4.0 is freely available for research purposes and for education institutions from elementary schools to universities. LG AI Research said it’s working to allow enterprises to deploy its Exaone 4.0.
The launch comes as LG is diversifying its business empire that spans from home appliances, electric vehicle batteries, petrochemicals and telecommunications. Led by billionaire Koo Kwang-mo, the conglomerate last March revealed a 100 trillion won ($74 billion) five-year investment plan in South Korea’s future technologies, including AI, biotech and cleantech.
Since then, LG has been ramping up its AI bets. In March, its information technology service arm LG CNS announced a partnership with Nvidia-backed AI startup Cohere to develop Korean-specialized AI models for enterprises. And in January, LG Electronics teamed up with Microsoft to work on AI agents for various spaces, including homes, vehicles, hotels and offices.
Despite the efforts, LG is contending with intensifying competition in Korea’s AI race, which has yet to see a clear winner. The companies that are developing AI models in South Korea include billionaire Lee Hae-jin’s internet giant Naver and Chey Tae-won’s SK Telecom. Others are partnering with established U.S. companies. Billionaire Kim Beom-su’s internet giant Kakao, for example, is working with OpenAI to develop AI agents.
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