Im Moon-young, vice chair of the National AI Strategy Committee, which is tasked with shaping the direction of Korea's artificial intelligence (AI) policy, said, "Building on the DNA that once created steel mills and the automobile industry from scratch, we will rise to become one of the world's top three AI powers (G3), standing shoulder to shoulder with the United States and China."
On the morning of the 24th at the Korea Press Center in Jung-gu, Seoul, Vice Chair Im unveiled the national AI execution plan in a lecture at the 95th breakfast meeting hosted by the Northeast Asia Community ICT Forum (Chair Seok Ho-ik).
Vice Chair Im first defined the concept of "sovereign AI" as "a matter of control and alternatives, not simple localization."
He said, "Sovereign AI is not about insisting on exclusive, homegrown technology, but about ensuring that we ourselves control the technology and hold alternatives without being subordinated to a particular country or a giant platform," adding, "Our goal is to secure 95% of the performance compared with the global state of the art (SOTA) and exercise practical technological sovereignty."
Vice Chair Im also laid out guidelines for the surging demand for data centers and the imbalance in power supply and demand. The principle is to build large-scale facilities (hyperscale centers), which consume massive amounts of power, in provincial areas where power is generated, while using sites in the Seoul metropolitan area only for small facilities (edge centers) that require ultra-low-latency services and where demand is concentrated.
Vice Chair Im said, "Policy in the AI era is about aiming at a 'moving target' with no fixed answers," adding, "We will focus our capabilities on creating 'solutions' in the field." To that end, the committee will establish a system of "enforced cooperation" to break down silos among ministries and will also actively exercise its authority to mediate issues where interests are sharply divided.
At the seminar, the audience raised a variety of questions on topics such as the data transaction market, cooperation with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and an upgrade of the National Disaster and Safety Communications Network. Regarding cooperation with the UAE, Vice Chair Im said, "The existing areas of cooperation have been expanded to include 'space,'" and explained, "The government is broadening the scope of cooperation between the two countries, including by pursuing a visit to Korea by the UAE president."
On the top concern in the content sector—copyright—he said, "For areas where the copyright transaction market is not yet formed, we will establish a system of 'use data first and compensate afterward' to open the flow of data."
The government plans to hold its second plenary session on the 25th and finalize the "Korea AI Action Plan" to realize "AI for all," a national agenda of the Lee Jae-myung administration. The plan will include 99 execution tasks and 326 recommendations, including improvements to systems for personal information, copyright, and security.