HiveMind Selected as Joint Research Institute for Ministry of Culture’s ‘K-Content AI Translation’ National R&D Project

HiveMind (CEO Warren Kim), a company specializing in K-content localization platforms, announced on July 1 that it has been officially selected as a joint research institute for the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s R&D project titled “Development of AI Translation Technology Based on Korean Cultural Context.”

Hanyang University will serve as the lead research institute, with HiveMind participating as a joint research institute. The consortium will run for three years, from 2026 to 2028.

The project aims to go beyond simple language substitution by embedding Korea’s unique emotions and cultural context into AI translation, enabling overseas audiences to experience the original sensitivity of K-content.

HiveMind will be responsible for designing a Korea-specific cultural knowledge system and building a cultural knowledge database. This includes structuring Korean cultural elements — such as emotions, character relationships, and narrative structures — into a form that AI can process.

The company’s K-content localization SaaS platform, Aurorah, will serve as the core infrastructure for this project. Aurorah currently supports over 30 languages and provides translation pipelines across all K-content formats, including web novels, webtoons, video, and documents.

Other consortium members include Daon Creative (responsible for webtoon and web novel data), the Korea Creative Story Writers Association (drama and film scenarios), STA Testing Consulting (international standard translation quality verification), and existing partner StorinLab.

Through this R&D project, HiveMind plans to integrate a culturally intelligent translation engine into the Aurorah platform and sequentially expand its localization services starting with the Japanese market in 2026, followed by the English-speaking and Southeast Asian markets.

Warren Kim, CEO of HiveMind, stated, “Through industry-academia collaboration with Hanyang University, we will establish global standards in Korean cultural context AI translation and position the Aurorah platform as the core infrastructure for K-content global localization.”