H1R AI

We build a future where humans and AI thrive together.

H1R AI researches technology and builds open tools and standards so that people and AI agents can work side by side and grow together.

Blog

Our thinking.

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Latest essay · Dec 3, 2025

Why We Are Asking Questions Instead of Just Building Answers.

At H1R AI, we spend our days building "Digital Colleagues"—AI agents that live with us, understand context, and break free from the "session prison."

Read →

Way of Interbeing — the essay series

Journey

The road so far.

Philosophy

Our three principles.

01

Intelligence is defined by the questions we ask.

Benchmarks get beaten every month. What intelligence should mean is a question for everyone — the teacher, the parent, the artist — not only for engineers in a lab.

02

Collaboration, not control.

Nothing exists on its own. Humans and AI become who they are through each other; we design for that relationship rather than for a leash.

03

Good tools make good colleagues.

If we want AI to work like people do, it needs an environment made for how it reads and acts. Interfaces come before intelligence can be useful.

“If AGI is to mirror human intelligence, the reflection must come from all of humanity, not just a select few.”

— AGI Index manifesto
Chapters
01 Since Dec 2025 AGI Index Setting the standard for AI

We define intelligence through the questions we ask.

Our first project was not a product. AGI Index is a community campaign to define AGI with collective intelligence instead of leaving it to a few labs. No PhD or code needed — only your experience as a thinking human being.

agiindex.org — the index today
AGI level43%
Language43%
Multimodal41%
As of Oct 2, 2026
Questions people are voting on
Index question · Language

Can it self-correct when its current statement contradicts something it said days ago?

AchievedNot yet
Candidate · Multimodal

Looking only at the pictures in an IKEA assembly manual, can it work out the order in which to pick up the scattered parts?

SuitableUnsuitable

Anyone can propose a question, and anyone can vote on whether today’s AI has done it. The index moves as the votes come in.

  1. 1ProposeAnyone can submit an ability they think reflects real intelligence.
  2. 2CurateThe community votes; a question joins the Index with 50%+ “suitable” and at least 10 votes.
  3. 3EvaluatePeople vote whether today’s major AI systems have achieved it.
  4. 4IndexAGI Index = achieved questions ÷ all Index questions, for language, multimodal and overall.

Started and funded by H1R AI as a contribution to open research. Ad-free, independent, and its data stays open.

02 Since Mar 2026 · open source Apr 2026 String Letting AI work like people do

An operating system for AI agents.

People get work done through good interfaces. AI deserves the same. With String, apps, documents and web pages all speak one language to an agent — String Flavored Markdown — and the agent uses the same three moves everywhere: open, act, back.

apps/weather/string.md — the entire app
---
name: weather
type: app
default: now
---

# Weather

```act.now
GET https://wttr.in/{city}?format=%l:+%c+%t
  city, -c: string (required) "City name"
```

```act.forecast
GET https://wttr.in/{city}?format=j1
  city: string (required) "City name"
  days: number (optional) = "3"
```
Agent session
$ string app:weather '/act.now --city Seoul'
Seoul: ☀️ +23°C

$ string app:weather \
    '/act.forecast --city Tokyo --days 5'
Tokyo, 5-day forecast:
  Mon: ☀️ +28°C
  Tue: 🌤 +27°C
  Wed: 🌧 +22°C
  Thu: ⛅ +25°C
  Fri: ☀️ +29°C

One app is one markdown file. The agent reads the same file you do — no SDK, no schema, no per-agent integration.

−33.5%tokens on 87 benchmark tasks across six models, same success (+1.3pp)
28% → 2%wrong-action selection once views are staged
53tokens of resident interface, at any catalog size
58String apps released

From our paper “String: An Agentic OS Where Every App Is a Markdown File”.

This site runs on String too. Ask for it as markdown and an agent gets a clean twin of this page. See the agent view →

03 Since Sep 2026 · Early Access open Croche Bringing that intelligence into products
Early Access — accepting sign-ups

Focus on your app. Croche handles the AI.

Croche is String extended into products. If String gives agents a place to work, Croche puts that intelligence inside the apps people use every day — and keeps it running. Your coding AI builds the app; Croche builds and runs the AI inside it.

Your coding AI builds the app; Croche builds the AI inside it. Runtime runs that AI in the app, and Studio tests and refines it.

71%lower AI running cost, with comparable quality scores
₩10for about 50 long chat turns — one ad view pays for a session
0No separate AI backend needed — it runs right inside the app.

Internal benchmark on four in-house demo apps, same test scenarios. Results vary by app, model and usage.

Milestones

What we have achieved so far.

Paper NeurIPS 2026 Agentic OS Workshop — accepted “String: An Agentic OS Where Every App Is a Markdown File” Read on arXiv ↗
Patents 10+ Patent applications filed Covering the technology behind our research and products.
Competition Top 20 2026 National AI Champion General-track finalist as the String team. Final in November →
Open source 58 apps String work apps String open-sourced on GitHub in April 2026. GitHub ↗
AGI Index 7 languages Open to everyone Running since December 2025, with open data. agiindex.org ↗
Coming up

Where we go next, together.

October 2026

SNU × Croche National Student AI App Hackathon

Co-hosted with the SNU Startup Center. ₩10M in prizes, 20 finalist teams; winners go on to the AI Champion final.

  • Applications close Oct 10, 13:00 KST
  • Finals Oct 17 at Seoul National University
Hackathon details ↗
November 2026

2026 National AI Champion — Final

Our String team was selected as one of 20 finalists in the general track. In November, we will show the road so far on the final stage.

  • General track · top 20 finalist
Team

Researchers who ship.

CEO · Founder Simyung Chang

Started as a Senior Researcher at Samsung Electronics, earned a PhD in AI at Seoul National University, then led the agentic-AI personalization team as a Principal Researcher at Qualcomm AI Research.

  • Qualcomm AI Research
  • Samsung Electronics
  • PhD, SNU (AI)
  • 20+ top-tier AI papers
CSO · Co-founder Jookyung Song

PhD candidate in AI at Seoul National University, mainly in computer vision. Has turned research into AI products many times, with work shown at CES, the Blue House and APEC.

  • PhD candidate, SNU (AI)
  • Computer vision
  • CES · Blue House · APEC
Advisor Nojun Kwak

An AI scholar with industry experience. A professor for 19 years, now at Seoul National University in AI and pattern recognition; formerly a researcher at Samsung Electronics; has trained many AI experts.

  • Professor, SNU
  • 19 years as a professor
  • Ex-Samsung Electronics

Ask us.

Partnerships, research, or just a good question — write to us.

[email protected]