Visible Results of Data Dam Led by AI... Government to Open 3,000 Types of Data by Year-End

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] #1. Annotation AI, a startup founded by artificial intelligence (AI) experts, secured hard-to-obtain image and video data such as autonomous vehicle footage from a transportation big data platform and enhanced the performance of Anowiz, an automated data labeling tool. Through this, they successfully signed an export contract with a Vietnamese company conducting autonomous vehicle development research. Next year, they plan to establish local subsidiaries in Japan and the United States.

#2. Motion2AI developed an AI-based cargo recognition automation system using structural data within logistics warehouses. Subsequently, they developed a logistics center management service that provides optimal forklift routes to minimize operation time.

The achievements of companies through the data dam project, a core part of the 'Digital New Deal,' are becoming visible one by one. The data dam project refers to accumulating and analyzing data gathered from various fields to train AI, and then utilizing the trained AI in diverse sectors such as finance, education, healthcare, and transportation.

On the 16th, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced that it held a performance report meeting on the data dam project. The Ministry expects that through the Digital New Deal and data dam projects, which proactively prepare for the digital transformation era, AI·data economy will accelerate, and in addition to economic stimulus and job creation, innovation will be driven across all sectors.

Accordingly, 644.9 billion KRW was invested through the 2020 main budget and supplementary budget to expand big data platforms and centers for producing and opening high-quality data lacking in the industry, and to build and open large-scale AI training data essential for AI service development. Additionally, data purchase and processing or AI usage costs are supported via vouchers for SMEs and startups, and AI convergence leading projects (AI+X) are being promoted in fields closely related to public life such as healthcare and safety.

The Ministry operates 10 platforms (100 centers) established in 2019 across fields such as finance, telecommunications, and forestry to supply and promote the use of high-quality data throughout the industry, and is building 6 additional platforms through the 2020 supplementary budget. Through this, the number of data types will be expanded to over 3,000 by the end of the year. The number of cases where users utilized data through these platforms reached 57,793, about 19.6 times higher than the 2,942 cases at the end of 2019.

The social enterprise 'TwoFather' enhanced its consulting service for energy saving and shared electricity bill reduction in apartment complexes nationwide by utilizing apartment management fee data from the financial platform. TwoFather was able to provide customized data at desired times, which was previously difficult for startups to obtain, enabling nationwide service provision. Additionally, Withus Pharmaceutical is conducting anticancer drug development research using breast cancer clinical data accumulated on the healthcare platform in collaboration with participating hospitals such as the National Cancer Center, Yonsei Cancer Hospital, and Konyang University Hospital. This is expected to significantly improve the success rate of new drug development.

The data voucher support project promoted by the Ministry is a program that supports data purchase and processing services so that SMEs and startups can effectively utilize data accumulated in the data dam, currently supporting 2,040 companies this year. The number of applicant companies increased by 220% compared to the previous year due to many companies seeking data-driven innovation. The number of data supply companies also significantly increased to 765 this year from 393 last year.

Startups and SMEs that received data vouchers reported that they were able to experience tangible effects such as increased production, cost reduction, and new market creation by utilizing data.

IreAIS developed an AI-based smart farm remote support platform by receiving support for insufficient crop cultivation environment data through vouchers, applying it to 500 farms. As a result, productivity increased, leading to a 20% rise in farm income. EightTech received waste image processing data to resolve the inconvenience of manually sorting waste and developed a waste recognition and classification system using AI. The work speed increased by 1.7 times compared to manual sorting, and the amount of unsorted waste decreased.

By 2019, 21 types and 46.5 million cases of AI training data had been built and opened. This year, 375 million cases of 170 types (20 types from the main budget, 150 types from the supplementary budget) of data were built and opened.

Furthermore, the Ministry emphasized that job creation effects are also appearing by applying a citizen participation-type crowdsourcing method (alongside direct employment). It is expected that job creation will greatly exceed the initial target of about 20,000 people.

The AI convergence leading project promoted by the Ministry is a project that proactively applies data and AI to fields with significant economic ripple effects and public perception. This year, 53 companies and institutions are participating in seven projects in areas such as healthcare, customs clearance, and energy.

The Ministry stated, "Through this project, we are supporting the enhancement of AI companies' technological capabilities by training AI using previously hard-to-access data such as 11,000 infectious disease clinical data related to COVID-19 and 60 million energy consumption data by production equipment in industrial complexes," and expressed expectations that "from next year, by actively applying developed AI solutions on-site, AI-based innovation and new value creation will be promoted in various fields."

At the performance report meeting, an opportunity was also provided to introduce the excellent achievements of domestic companies supported by the data dam project, such as Annotation AI and Motion2AI.

Kim Jung-won, Director of the Information and Communication Policy Office at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "This year, following the national AI strategy, the Digital New Deal has been fully launched, opening a significant gateway for the AI and data market," and added, "In addition to the meaningful achievements so far, we will accelerate policy implementation so that the public can feel these changes."

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