[Asia Future Business Forum] "No to Technology Dependence... Must Enhance Competitiveness in Super-large AI"

At the "2023 Asia Future Business Forum" held on the 17th at Lotte Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, hosted by Asia Economy, Ha Jung-woo, head of Naver AI Research Center, is giving a lecture on the topic "Our Response Strategy to the Era of Chat GPT and Super Large AI." Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

"When we become 'technologically dependent' on companies like Microsoft and Google, it becomes difficult even at the national level to manage global big tech. We need to create a competitive ecosystem unique to our country."

Ha Jung-woo, head of Naver AI Research Center, stated this during his lecture at the 11th Asia Future Enterprise Forum held on the 17th at Lotte Hotel in Sogong-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul.

Ha said, "After Google completely dominated the app ecosystem, we experienced an 'app toll increase,'" adding, "Although global big tech currently guarantees the quality of (generative AI) services, it will be difficult to ensure this once market dominance is complete."

He emphasized, "We must be able to maintain super-large AI technology ourselves," and "Naver, Kakao, SKT, KT, and all domestic companies need to build a competitive ecosystem together."

Ha also stressed the necessity of super-large AI based on the Korean language. He said, "OpenAI recently announced a brand policy forbidding the use of 'OOOGPT.' The global AI technology hegemony war has begun," and added, "Currently, using a super-large AI based on English and converting it to Korean costs 4.5 times more. This is why super-large AI is needed for each language."

Ha stated, "What Naver is preparing is a Korean-centered, English-proficient super-large AI," and "Our goal is to create and provide super-large AI specialized in various fields such as construction, law, public sector, and finance."

At the "2023 Asia Future Business Forum" held on the 17th at Lotte Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, hosted by Asia Economy, Ha Jung-woo, head of Naver AI Research Center (from the left), served as the chairperson for a discussion on the topic of domestic response strategies for generative AI, with Kim Kwang-seop, CTO of Kakao Brain, Kim Young-jun, head of SKT A.Dot Promotion Team, and Bae Soon-min, head of KT Convergence Technology Institute AI2XL Research Center. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

Immediately after the lecture, a discussion titled 'Domestic Response Strategy for Generative AI' was held with Ha as the chair. The panel included Kim Kwang-seop, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Kakao Brain; Kim Young-jun, Vice President in charge of SK Telecom's A.Dot Promotion Team; and Bae Soon-min, head of KT Convergence Technology Institute's AI2XL Research Center.

The panelists expressed negative views on the recent issue of a 'six-month halt on AI development' spreading mainly in Silicon Valley, USA. This issue was triggered when over 1,000 CEOs and researchers from advanced technology companies, including Elon Musk, called for a temporary pause in AI development, citing the risks AI could pose. The argument is that AI has brought significant changes to society and caused side effects such as privacy violations, necessitating a slowdown in development.

Bae said, "From a user perspective, the recent AI advancements in the last one to two years may seem tremendous, but in reality, the technologies underlying AI have been steadily built up over the past 10 years," adding, "Even if a particular country stops, it is practically impossible because this is a global movement. While ethical and legal aspects must be addressed in development, it is better to advance technology while 'driving the car' rather than stopping progress to handle these issues."

CTO Kim said, "Recently, lightweight models have shown performance comparable to large models through extensive data, and the open-source community is producing very impressive results much faster than big tech," adding, "I doubt that a six-month development halt by a few competitors alone would have an effective impact."

Vice President Kim also said, "I don't think stopping development for six months will make a big difference. Six months is probably the time it takes to raise the issue and reach an agreement," adding, "Given the rapid pace of technological advancement, it can be understood as a call to reach a social consensus on misuse."

On this day, the panelists unanimously agreed that government support is essential to strengthen Korea's super-large AI competitiveness. Bae said, "When Korean companies make efforts on par with global companies, government assistance is needed to keep pace," adding, "It would be good if the government proactively identifies and removes obstacles that companies and researchers might face in development, and also eliminates unreasonable regulations that act like 'sandbags' hindering progress."

Vice President Kim said, "Rather than a mindset of protecting Korean language data from big tech, I think we should support Korean companies going global," adding, "Since Korea is not a large country, it is not cost-effective to develop and apply expensive technologies. I believe government support to help us expand globally and thus grow the market size would be more beneficial."

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