The Ministry of Science and ICT said on the 1st (local time) that Vice Prime Minister and Minister Bae Kyung-hoon attended the Group of 20 (G20) Innovation Ministers' Meeting held in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, as Korea's chief delegate.
The G20 Innovation Ministers' Meeting brought together chief delegates at the minister and vice minister level and senior officials from 21 countries, including 20 member nations and one invited country (Poland), to discuss policy directions to drive innovation in emerging technologies including artificial intelligence (AI).
Vice Prime Minister Bae outlined Korea's policy direction and key experiences to foster AI as a core engine for national innovation and economic growth. Aiming to become a global top three in AI, Bae shared key elements of the "Everyone's AI project," which helps anyone use AI easily and benefit from it, and the status of the "pan-government AX (AI transition) project" to lead innovation in the public institutional sector.
Bae also said Korea is concentrating its efforts on three mega projects—semiconductors, AI data centers, and physical AI—and has enacted the "AI Basic Act" and "AI Ethics Principles" to create a safe and trustworthy AI environment.
Bae said Korea is expanding basic research investment so researchers can conduct studies stably, and is pursuing the abolition of the preliminary feasibility study system for research and development (R&D) and the streamlining of research administration. Bae also said Korea is expanding challenge-driven R&D through the seed (SEED) project to discover future innovative technologies and the K-Moonshot project that applies AI to science and technology research.
Bae said, "Emerging technologies, including AI, are the key engine that changes national growth, industrial competitiveness, and people's lives," adding, "We will actively share our experience with G20 members and cooperate with the international community so that science and technology innovation can lead to the world's sustained growth and prosperity."