The largest national tech conference 'SMARTCLOUD SHOW 2025' kicked off on the morning of the 27th at the Westin Josun Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul. Hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT and organized by ChosunBiz and the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA), this event focuses on the theme 'AI and the Future,' exploring the latest trends in artificial intelligence (AI) technology and changes across society and industry. On this day, more than 300 participants from the government, academia, and industry attended, showing high interest in the new opportunities and changes brought by AI.
During the opening ceremony, Song Sang-hoon, head of the information and communication policy office of the Ministry of Science and ICT, delivered remarks on behalf of Minister Bae Kyung-hun, saying, 'The government is actively promoting the establishment of an independent AI ecosystem, aiming to become one of the top three AI nations. This includes securing 10,000 graphic processing units (GPUs), demonstrating domestic AI semiconductors, and supporting the development of physical AI.' He added, 'I hope this occasion becomes a meaningful time to discuss the direction of AI technology development and its social implications.'
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, in a video message, stated, 'The Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to establish its own large-scale language model (LLM) next year and introduce generative AI across administrative processes.' He expressed hope that the ideas discussed today would serve as a driving force in transforming Seoul into a global smart city.
This conference will focus on the evolution of 'physical AI' that extends beyond text and image generation to real-world applications like robotics and autonomous driving. Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, declared, 'The robotics industry will also encounter a turning point similar to that of ChatGPT,' indicating that the combination of robotics and AI is emerging as a new growth axis. Accordingly, the future of physical AI is expected to be a key agenda item during the keynote speech.
The first keynote speech will be delivered by Ken Goldberg, a leading authority in the field of physical AI and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He is developing manufacturing robots in collaboration with NVIDIA and will introduce changes that next-generation robotic technology will bring to the manufacturing, agriculture, and healthcare sectors, under the theme 'The productivity revolution led by AI and robots.' Following him, Dona Sarkar, head of accessibility technology at Microsoft (MS), will speak as the second keynote presenter on how 'AI agents' that can make judgments and perform tasks will support and transform corporate operations.
David Qian, CEO of the Chinese robotic vacuum cleaner company Ecovacs, will explore the future of AI-based home robots under the theme 'The evolution and innovation of household robots.' Following him, Professor Zhang Byoung-Tak from Seoul National University will present on 'K-Humanoids' and the Korean AI strategy. The four speakers will engage in a panel discussion moderated by Professor Yoon Sung-roh from Seoul National University, discussing opportunities and challenges in the AI industry.
During the afternoon session, corporations from various fields, including global big tech, security, cloud, and mobility, will take the stage. Mohamed Awad, senior vice president at Arm, which holds over 90% of the global semiconductor design market, will share AI semiconductor strategies under the theme 'The future of AI is designed at Arm.'
Dan Karpati, head of the AI Center at Israeli security firm Check Point, will share cyber security threats and response strategies in the AI era. Jiao Wang, vice president of Huawei Cloud for the Asia-Pacific region, and Mike O'Gill, head of public policy at Uber APAC, will each present on AI innovations in the cloud and mobility industries.
In Korea, speakers will include Lee Min-jung, vice president of S-1, Chu Min-sik, head of the AI advanced technology research center at LG CNS, and Ok Sang-hoon, leader of Naver Cloud. They will convey various perspectives from the field on AI and physical security, AI agents, and generative AI business cases.