The Ministry of Science and ICT said on the 1st at a roundtable at the KT West Building in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, that it will leap to become No. 1 in the world in physical artificial intelligence (AI).
AI is evolving beyond understanding language and images to physical AI that understands real-world environments and acts proactively in reality. Physical AI is drawing attention as a technology that can solve chronic problems facing Korea, such as the demographic cliff, disaster and security crises, and the extinction of rural areas. That is because it can redefine the competitiveness of existing industries and society by breaking through stagnant productivity and achieving a sustainable society.
Lee Do-gyu, Deputy Minister for Information and Communications Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT), said, "The reason Jensen Huang, Nvidia chief executive officer (CEO), visited Korea was not to sell graphics processing units (GPUs), but because he needed data for physical AI training," adding, "Korea has a manufacturing base across all industries, including shipbuilding, and has the potential to boost physical AI performance." The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) said, "The next three years are the golden time, and we will secure independent competitiveness before global corporations preempt the ecosystem, based on the world's best manufacturing base and AI technological capabilities."
◇ Securing the full stack for physical AI
The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) announced detailed strategies to leap to No. 1 in physical AI. First, to secure independent physical AI technological prowess, it plans to acquire the foundational technologies. The plan is to secure three core technologies to build a full stack for physical AI: ▲ a physical AI foundation model with general-purpose capabilities that, like humans, can formulate its own plans and perform long-horizon tasks and precise manipulation ▲ a world model that predicts changes in the real world in advance and runs simulations to support AI training and decision-making ▲ a computing platform that enables AI models to operate on-device without latency.
At the same time, it will gather general-purpose data such as robot behavior data generated through government projects and domain-specific datasets in one place, and establish a system to manage quality, including data validity verification and interoperability standards, to build a comprehensive management framework for high-quality data.
◇ Supporting demonstrations and commercialization through pan-government collaboration
The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) will move to demonstration and deployment so that core physical AI technologies are continuously advanced and tangibly change daily life. To that end, it will identify demand for physical AI applications by ministry and sector, and build a cross-ministerial cooperation system to rapidly demonstrate and scale needed technologies. In consultation with relevant ministries, it plans to provide tailored investment support ranging from promising startups to key corporations.
The Deputy Minister said, "Korea is a latecomer in the field of large language models (LLMs) that train on text and images, so there are limits to catching up, but physical AI does not yet have an absolute dominant player, so becoming No. 1 in physical AI is not impossible," adding, "Now is the golden time and the best window of opportunity."