Choi Sang-mok, acting president and deputy prime minister serving as the Minister of Strategy and Finance, said, "We will develop a Korean-style ChatGPT and secure independent artificial intelligence (AI) technologies." To achieve this, he promised to pursue ▲ a research and development (R&D) project worth 1 trillion won ▲ the establishment of a national AI computing center worth 2 trillion won ▲ the creation of an AI startup fund worth 3 trillion won ▲ and the attraction of outstanding AI talents.
Acting Prime Minister Choi made these remarks at the '3rd National Artificial Intelligence Commission' held in Jung-gu, Seoul, stating, "We will concentrate on supporting the development of world-class AI models."
He added, "I will promote the World Best LLM project to ensure the development of a Korean-style ChatGPT" and "We plan to select a national elite AI team and provide comprehensive support for research funding related to large-scale graphics processing units (GPU)." He continued, "To secure independent universal artificial intelligence technology, we will also advance a 1 trillion won R&D project after preliminary feasibility studies."
The background of Acting Prime Minister Choi's emphasis on AI is due to the recent development of an AI model at the level of major U.S. tech companies by the Chinese startup DeepSeek, as well as the astronomical AI infrastructure investment plans announced by major advanced countries such as the United States (700 trillion won) and the European Union (300 trillion won). Although South Korea has enacted a basic law on AI and established an artificial intelligence commission, it is being evaluated as lagging in AI development.
Acting Prime Minister Choi emphasized, "While the global AI environment is rapidly changing and a sense of crisis is rising, I am convinced that this presents new opportunities for us," and "It is a critical moment when the public and private sectors must come together to quickly enhance the nation's AI capabilities in order to leap into becoming one of the top three AI countries."
He emphasized the need to "cultivate core AI talents and attract outstanding individuals." The government will not only hold a global AI challenge for young talents, but also intensively support the research activities of emerging AI researchers, as well as expand the recruitment of overseas experts and excellent researchers.
He also stated, "We will swiftly establish a national AI computing center worth a total of 2 trillion won and prioritize the acquisition of 10,000 advanced GPUs within this year to launch computing resource provision services at an early stage." He continued, "To promote private AI data center investments, we will also enhance tax support in the AI and cloud sectors," adding that "We will expand the opening of unstructured original public data that has been difficult to utilize due to personal information issues and significantly increase high-quality industrial manufacturing data."
Acting Prime Minister Choi also revealed plans to "cultivate AI startups and create markets." Support will be provided for the joint development of AI models through collaboration among corporations, systematically supporting the human resources and funding channels of 100 AI specialized manufacturing corporations.
The government plans to create a focused fund for AI startups worth 3 trillion won by 2027 and support scaling through links with large corporations. Acting Prime Minister Choi stated, "We will promote leading projects to develop AI services in sectors with significant ripple effects, such as healthcare and law, to provide a fast elevator for the growth of AI startups."