"Targeted Support Measures Needed to Secure Competitiveness in Supermassive AI"

'The Era of Supermassive AI in Korea and AI Sovereignty' Discussion Forum

There has been a call for 'pinpoint support policies' rather than pinpoint regulations to foster the artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem and secure global leadership. Since each company has different areas of concern, it is necessary to minimize regulations and implement customized support policies.

On the 13th, a policy forum titled "Korea in the Era of Super-large AI and AI Sovereignty" was held at the National Assembly Members' Office Building.

Participants of the discussion on "The Republic of Korea in the Era of Supermassive AI and AI Sovereignty" are taking a commemorative photo.
[Photo by Oh Su-yeon]

The ChatGPT craze has intensified global competition in the super-large AI domain. Professor Kim Jeong-hwan of the Human ICT Convergence Department at Pukyong National University said, "Now is the time for pinpoint support policies rather than pinpoint regulations," adding, "Five companies participated in this forum, and even among these five, the technological stages and contexts are all different. To protect AI ecosystem sovereignty, we need to consider customized support policies." He also stated, "With the growth of generative AI, discussions on data acquisition and sharing are expected to expand further. Besides quantitative data acquisition, ensuring data quality should be discussed as an important task. Policies and guidelines for data ownership and activation of data transactions are necessary."

In fact, while the major AI companies attending the event shared the broad demands for deregulation and support measures, their detailed voices varied. Ha Jung-woo, head of Naver AI LAB Center, emphasized the importance of regulatory design to respond to the super-large AI era. He said, "Regulation is a means for development," and stressed that AI technology industries should be safely utilized based on global leadership. He also said, "We need to grow the industrial ecosystem through public sector innovation based on super-large AI centered on the digital platform government," adding, "This itself should become a new industry and be nurtured to the extent that it can be exported."

Kim Kyung-hoon, AI Policy Support Director at Kakao, said that to strengthen AI competitiveness, government support should be expanded and the research and development (R&D) system needs innovation. To this end, he urged ▲ support for computing infrastructure for AI model training ▲ collection and supply of training data ▲ transition to programmatic R&D.

Sung Seok-ham, Vice President in charge of Policy Cooperation at SKT, requested the government to support AI semiconductors and sector-specific specialized models. Sung said that with the emergence of super-large AI, the high price of expensive foreign GPUs and power consumption issues are growing, stating, "If the AI semiconductor farm project becomes a public-private infrastructure construction project, we can expect the co-growth of super-large AI and AI semiconductors." He also said, "Despite ChatGPT's excellent performance, its accuracy is low for use in specialized fields," and emphasized, "To develop specialized models, accessibility to application datasets and computing infrastructure must be improved."

Lee Jin-hyung, Senior Executive Director of KT's Large AI Business, said that AI competitiveness should be strengthened by supporting win-win cooperation between large and small-medium enterprises at the national level. He also mentioned the need to seek measures to protect sensitive data and secure high-quality data necessary for super-large AI model performance.

Kim Yoo-cheol, Head of LG AI Research Division, requested government support to secure not only training data but also evaluation data. He also emphasized the importance of creating use cases for super-large AI to foster the ecosystem.

The need for cross-border super-cooperation was also raised. Professor Kim Jin-woo of KAIST's Technology Management Department said, "While emphasizing Korean AI sovereignty and focusing on defending the domestic market is important, ultimately, technological innovation and growth strategies that can lead AI in overseas markets are necessary." He added, "Foreign companies possessing super-large AI core technologies are also cooperating with many companies and universities to build ecosystems. They know that success cannot be achieved by technology alone without partner cooperation," and stated, "We need to send a message to go abroad."

The government established the "Super-large AI Competitiveness Enhancement Plan" in April and is nurturing it as a strategic industry. Eom Yeol, Director of AI-based Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "Regarding AI technology competitiveness, Korea is estimated to be 80-90% behind the US," adding, "We will reflect budgets for new policy tasks in the Super-large AI Competitiveness Enhancement Plan and simultaneously promote growth and order by securing trust through support for AI legislation."

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