LG AI Research wins national IP award for AI compliance agent EXAONE Nexus

Ministry of Culture hosts 2026 International Copyright Technology Conference

Agent analyzes copyright, licensing and personal data risks in training datasets

45 times faster than legal experts, with 26% higher accuracy

Over 40 lawyers collaborated; 20,000-plus datasets analyzed

LG eyes expansion to global big tech firms and law firms

LG AI Research announced Wednesday that its AI compliance agent EXAONE Nexus won the National Intellectual Property Commission Chairman's Award at the copyright technology awards ceremony held as part of the 2026 International Copyright Technology Conference, known as ICOTEC, hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

EXAONE Nexus is a compliance-focused AI agent that automatically analyzes complex legal risks — including copyright, licensing and personal data issues — embedded in large-scale AI training datasets. LG AI Research developed the agent to get ahead of potential copyright infringement disputes.

The agent is designed to analyze large datasets that would be difficult for humans to review individually. According to LG AI Research, it processes a single dataset 45 times faster than a legal expert and with 26 percent greater accuracy. The cost per analysis is roughly one-thousandth that of hiring a legal professional.

LG AI Research receives the National Intellectual Property Commission Chairman's Award at the copyright technology awards ceremony of the 2026 International Copyright Technology Conference, hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, in recognition of the technical achievements of its AI compliance agent EXAONE Nexus. [LG]

LG AI Research has also built a compliance framework that incorporates major regulatory regimes, including South Korea's AI Basic Act and the EU's AI Act. The company worked with more than 40 lawyers from large domestic and international law firms, including those based in the United States, to verify the legal validity of the agent's analyses. Risk assessment results from more than 20,000 open datasets examined during that process have been made fully available to the academic and research community.

LG AI Research has designated EXAONE Nexus as a mandatory verification step for every AI model it develops in-house, deploying it across the full development cycle — from data collection and refinement through model development and service deployment.

The company plans to gradually expand supply of EXAONE Nexus to overseas markets with high compliance demand, targeting global big tech companies and law firms.

"Securing social trust amid the rapid advancement of AI technology is a core competitive advantage for any company," said Lee Hwa-young, head of AI business development at LG AI Research. "LG will continue to put people at the center of technology and deliver AI that combines high reliability with outstanding performance."

LG AI Research also operates an automated system for reporting research outputs — including papers and inventions — to protect its own intellectual property. Since its founding in 2020, the institute has filed 537 patents in South Korea and 594 abroad. On Monday, Yoo Kyung-jae, LG AI Research's IP strategy leader, received the Ministry of Science and ICT Prime Minister's Award at the ICT Patent Management Grand Prize for building that system.

"We need a shift in mindset — one that sees compliance as core infrastructure for corporate growth and development," said Koo Kwang-mo, chairman of LG Group. "We will continue to upgrade LG's compliance framework so that it reflects changes in the times and in society in a timely manner."

jeongwan@heraldcorp.com