The government set the capability target for a domestically developed, homegrown artificial intelligence (AI) foundation model at the global top 10. It plans to make next year the first year of a leap to become one of the three AI powers and to deliver results the public can feel.
Vice Prime Minister and Minister Bae Kyung-hoon of the Ministry of Science and ICT said on the 12th at the Government Sejong Convention Center in Sejong, while briefing President Lee Jae-myung on duties, "Next year we will secure a homegrown AI model that ranks among the global top 10 and provide it as open source to corporations and academia." He meant the government will release a general-purpose AI model developed under its lead so that domestic corporations and research institutions can use it freely without separate license burdens.
Alongside the general-purpose model, the government will also develop AI services specialized for various fields such as defense, manufacturing, and culture. In defense, options under review are applying AI to surveillance, reconnaissance, and intelligence analysis; in manufacturing, to process optimization and predictive maintenance of equipment; and in culture, to improving efficiency in content production and distribution.
It will also push public participation programs to broaden AI use. Vice Prime Minister Bae said, "In March next year, we will hold a nationwide AI competition to help anyone use AI well and support excellent ideas so they lead to commercialization and startups." The plan is to discover AI use cases while linking them to nurturing startups and small and mid-sized companies.
In connection with the recent spate of hacking and data leaks, the government decided to greatly strengthen corporate responsibility. Vice Prime Minister Bae said, "We will establish a strict accountability system by imposing punitive penalty surcharges on corporations that repeat security incidents, and the government will also raise its information security capabilities another level to wage an all-out war on hacking." This is interpreted to mean that, along with expanding AI infrastructure, it will also strengthen cyber security regulations and investment to build an "AI era safety net."