'One Year Since AI Powerhouse Declaration' Moon Launches No.1 Nation Drive with AI Avengers like Samsung, SKT, and Naver (Comprehensive)

President Moon Jae-in is speaking at the 'Korean New Deal: Meeting Artificial Intelligence in Korea' event held on the afternoon of the 25th at KINTEX in Ilsan, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi Province. 2020.11.25 [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo Seul-gi-na] On the 25th, President Moon Jae-in met with leading domestic ICT companies such as Samsung Electronics, SK Telecom, KT, Naver, and Kakao to drive the leap toward becoming the No.1 AI (Artificial Intelligence) nation. It has been about a year since President Moon personally unveiled the 'AI National Strategy' in December last year.

This meeting with the so-called 'AI Avengers' is interpreted as a move to assess the current status of domestic AI technology development and share future strategies. These companies also expressed their determination to lead the leap toward becoming the No.1 AI nation by directly introducing their AI robots, industry-academia-research cooperation, AI semiconductors, and more. In particular, SK Telecom revealed for the first time plans to launch the world's top-level AI semiconductor, domestically developed for the first time, aiming to achieve the No.1 position in AI semiconductors, a detailed task included in the AI National Strategy.

▶Refer to our November 17th articles on pages 1 and 14 ([Exclusive] Samsung, the three telecom companies, Naver, and Kakao gather as 'AI Avengers')

◆One year after the AI National Strategy announcement... Reviewing achievements

According to the Ministry of Science and ICT and others, the event 'Korean New Deal, Meeting Korea's Artificial Intelligence' held on the afternoon of the 25th at KINTEX in Ilsan was attended by President Moon Jae-in, major domestic ICT companies, venture and startup representatives, and related organizations to share the achievements and future vision over the past year since the establishment of the AI National Strategy.

First, Minister Choi Ki-young of the Ministry of Science and ICT, who led AI semiconductor industry-academia cooperation with Samsung during his time as a Seoul National University professor, announced the achievements of the AI National Strategy over the past year. The AI National Strategy announced in December last year has the vision of 'From an IT powerhouse to an AI powerhouse,' consisting of three major areas?AI ecosystem, utilization, and human-centeredness?with nine strategies and 100 execution tasks. The goal is to rank third in digital competitiveness worldwide by 2030, create an intelligent economic effect of 455 trillion KRW, and achieve the world's 10th highest quality of life.

In particular, the government evaluated that the spread of non-face-to-face activities due to COVID-19, acceleration of digital transformation, and the construction of a data dam for the all-around use of AI have accelerated the implementation of the AI National Strategy this year.

Regarding the data dam, a core project of the Digital New Deal, about 2,400 companies and institutions participated, creating more than 28,000 jobs. In terms of AI talent, which major companies have expressed difficulties in securing, the government expanded professional education infrastructure such as AI graduate schools. The plan is to train 100,000 professionals by 2025 and promote basic AI literacy education for the entire population. Additionally, through large projects such as next-generation AI technology development, the government is pushing to improve world-class technological capabilities and realize human-centered AI by establishing AI ethical standards. A roadmap for AI laws and institutional improvements will also be established by next month.

President Moon Jae-in is taking a commemorative photo after receiving the country's first domestically developed AI semiconductor from Kim Yoon, Vice President of SKT, at the "Korean New Deal: Meeting Artificial Intelligence in Korea" event held at KINTEX in Ilsan, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi Province on the afternoon of the 25th. 2020.11.25 Photo by Yonhap News

◆First public unveiling of AI semiconductors... Introduction of AI robots and industry-academia-research cooperation cases

The five companies?Samsung Electronics, SK Telecom, KT, Naver, and Kakao?each presented on themes such as ▲Data openness and AI robots (Naver) ▲AI One Team, an industry-academia-research cooperation case (KT) ▲Leap to AI companies (Kakao) ▲Human-centered AI (Samsung Electronics) ▲AI semiconductors (SK Telecom).

Seok Sang-ok, CEO of Naver Labs, began the keynote by emphasizing Naver's 'Global AI Research Belt.' He indicated that this massive belt connecting Asia and Europe centered on Korea, starting with the AI for Robotics workshop held last year at Naver Labs Europe (formerly Xerox Research Center Europe) in Grenoble, France, with world-renowned scholars, will become a new trend to counter the US-China technological hegemony centered on GAFA and BATH. He also emphasized plans to open and provide a data sandbox environment on the cloud within the year to support AI service development by ventures and startups. He introduced world-class AI robot technology capable of learning even the delicate movements of humans.

Jeon Hong-beom, Vice President of KT, introduced AI One Team, an AI council formed by KT-led industry-academia-research cooperation including Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, KAIST, Hanyang University, ETRI, LG Electronics, LG Uplus, Korea Investment & Securities, and Dongwon Group. This model is evaluated as a strategic cooperation model capable of securing global competitiveness in a situation where AI capabilities are inferior compared to China, which holds massive data, and the US, which has world-class technology. Vice President Jeon said, "AI One Team is working hard on joint R&D and cooperation to develop core AI technologies and train professionals. Specifically, KT is pushing open R&D with about 40 experts focusing on epidemic spread prevention models, next-generation voice language processing, and machine learning-based industrial site efficiency."

Kang Sung, Senior Vice President of Kakao Enterprise, revealed strategies being pursued to stand shoulder to shoulder with the so-called AI global big five?Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Apple, and Facebook. Kang viewed that to have AI competitiveness, an ecosystem that can utilize algorithms, computing hardware such as GPUs, data, and AI through the cloud in various fields is essential. He cited Kakao's partner ecosystem, world-class talent development, and services used by the entire population such as KakaoTalk as strengths, emphasizing, "In 10 years, we will definitely stand shoulder to shoulder with, or even surpass, global AI giants." In particular, he set a goal to make AI easy to learn and widely used by the entire population through services like KakaoTalk.

Lee Kyung-woon, Executive Director of Samsung Electronics, introduced the status of world-class AI technology research and development. He revealed a human-centered AI research vision along with seven global research centers operating to solve challenges such as pandemics and disasters. Samsung Electronics is evaluated as leading the realization of 'human-centered AI' by integrating AI into various products such as semiconductors, smartphones, and home appliances. It is expected to be a case that enhances social value through AI and creates new markets and technologies by securing world-class AI technology.

Finally, SK Telecom, which presented last, handed over its self-developed data center AI semiconductor to President Moon and announced its future vision for the AI semiconductor business. The AI semiconductor, the core brain of AI, is a non-memory semiconductor that executes large-scale computations required for AI service implementation at ultra-high speed and low power. Kim Yoon, CTO of SK Telecom, unveiled the AI semiconductor 'SAPEON X220,' evaluating it as "an achievement made possible through SK Telecom's technological and service capabilities, active government support, and cooperation with small and medium enterprises." Starting with this, SK Telecom plans to lead the realization of the 'No.1 AI nation' declared by the Moon Jae-in administration and to preoccupy the global AI semiconductor market, expected to grow to about 50 trillion KRW in 2024.

◆"National capabilities united to secure AI hegemony" Government's will reaffirmed

On this day, President Moon mentioned that the past year was a year in which the public and private sectors worked tirelessly together to leap toward an AI powerhouse. After first revealing the AI vision in October last year, President Moon personally unveiled the AI National Strategy by presiding over the Cabinet meeting in December of the same year. In the first government work report held in January this year, the Ministry of Science and ICT reported that "2020 will be the first year toward becoming the No.1 AI nation." The national project 'Korean New Deal,' currently being promoted to prepare for the post-COVID era, also has AI as a major pillar.

This event is also evaluated as a place where the president's will to unite national capabilities to secure AI hegemony was reaffirmed. This is based on the sense of crisis that AI will open the door to a super-intelligent society and change politics, economy, and society as a whole. AI has already rapidly penetrated everywhere in daily life, including manufacturing, finance, logistics, and services. In short, this was a place to review the past year and drive AI to secure new growth momentum.

The event was attended by KT CEO Koo Hyun-mo, Naver CEO Han Seong-sook, Kakao Enterprise CEO Baek Sang-yeop, LG Uplus President (Consumer Business General Manager) Hwang Hyun-sik, Samsung Electronics President Lee In-yong, and others. Although LG Uplus, a member of AI One Team, did not make a separate presentation on this day, the attendance of a president-level executive conveyed their intention to participate in efforts to leap toward the No.1 AI nation. Han, CEO of Naver, one of the core companies of the Korean New Deal, met President Moon for the third time this year at official events.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.