"There are problems related to combinations of various materials that can only be solved by using artificial intelligence (AI). We will be able to resolve on-site bottlenecks through AI."
Huh Tae-soo, chairman of GS Group, said this on the 10th ahead of a meeting of The Federation of Korean Industries' AI Innovation Committee held at GS Tower in Gangnam District, Seoul, speaking about how to apply AI to GS Group. "Energy involves a lot of operations, so what matters is how efficiently we can reduce inefficiencies and maintenance with minimal expense in the process, and how quickly we can launch new products based on predictive maintenance and market changes," he said.
Huh said, "A large language model (LLM) that codes what you say can be learned in half a day, so we don't have to rely on the information technology (IT) department," adding, "The key task is to enable people on the ground to identify problems and solve them directly through Generative AI." He added, "We need to move in a direction that allows frontline practitioners to resolve bottlenecks right on site, not through a top-down approach."
Huh also emphasized collaboration with Nvidia. Huh said, "Nvidia is leading across the entire (AI) ecosystem, including chips and language models, so it has become important how we work with them to build models tailored to each industry and company," adding, "GS is also considering how to collaborate in businesses such as refining, petrochemicals and energy distribution."
Huh also said, "I believe AI strategy is the most important under the Lee Jae-myung administration," diagnosing, "Because we are a manufacturing powerhouse, what matters is how well it can be used on site." "In the AI era everything is connected, so we must do this together, not alone, and we can grow together only if we share AI-related knowledge and developed models with small and midsize enterprises," he said.
At the meeting were Ha Jung-woo, senior secretary to the president for AI Future Planning at the Presidential Secretariat, and Song Sang-hoon, head of support at the Presidential Committee on AI, among others. The public and private sectors discussed an AX strategy across industries and sought ways to implement it. Huh presented three major tasks to accelerate AX on industrial sites: diagnosing and improving institutional barriers in the process of adopting AI technology; consolidation between technology-holding corporations and universities and the industrial sites that need it; and building a virtuous cycle by accumulating and sharing leading AX cases by sector.