Kukim AI Special Committee "Securing Future Food Sources"... Plans to Visit Samsung and SK for 'Field Voices'

Ahn Cheol-soo: "Even in Difficult Times, We Must Not Halt the Future"
Supplementary Budget for Securing NPUs Also Raised

The People Power Party has officially begun practical policy discussions to promote artificial intelligence (AI) technology, including support for AI computing infrastructure and AI research and development (R&D).

The People Power Party's 'Special Committee for the Leap to the Top 3 AI Powers' held its second meeting on the 10th at the National Assembly Members' Office Building, receiving reports on AI-related projects from various government ministries. The meeting was attended by 15 committee members from the National Assembly as well as numerous officials from key ministries such as the Ministry of Science and ICT (hereafter MSIT), the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and the Ministry of Education.

Committee Chairperson Ahn Cheol-soo stated, "The economy is precarious due to the triple hardships of high exchange rates, high inflation, and low growth. Despite the severe situation, we must not let the livelihood economy and the future come to a halt," emphasizing, "What the National Assembly must do is to revive the livelihood economy and establish a national strategy for survival by creating future growth engines through new AI technologies."

In discussions on supporting AI computing infrastructure, the committee examined the future growth prospects of AI semiconductors and discussed support measures for AI semiconductors. Opinions were exchanged on supporting fabless semiconductor design costs, chip supply for AI computing infrastructure, regulatory innovation for data centers, and the expansion of submarine cables.

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At the meeting, there was also a call for the need to allocate supplementary budgets to secure neural processing units (NPUs) specialized for AI computation. Ahn said, "Last year, the budget was cut under the leadership of the Democratic Party of Korea, so the budget for purchasing NPUs was not secured," adding, "To invest in livelihoods and future growth engines, discussions on the supplementary budget should start as soon as possible if possible."

Additional measures to support the purchase of graphics processing units (GPUs), which are virtually monopolized by NVIDIA, were also discussed. However, Ahn expressed the view that careful consideration is needed regarding the appropriate scale of the GPU purchase project, which Democratic Party lawmaker Jeong Dong-young proposed to support with an amount in the trillions of won.

Regarding the AI content industry, the committee reviewed the current status of guideline policies related to Chinese character data translation, manufacturing data standards, physical data generation, and multimodal model data for video and music content creation. The necessity of nurturing and attracting talent for AI industry growth was also mentioned. In this meeting, it was decided to design a multi-layered talent hub and establish a plan for securing specialized personnel.

The next meeting is likely to be held at corporate sites such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. It is reported that lawmaker Kim Eun-hye proposed visiting related corporate sites during this meeting to listen to difficulties and demands. Additionally, to conduct in-depth reviews by sector, the special committee decided to form subcommittees divided into three areas: AI computing infrastructure support, AI R&D and regulations, and content and talent development.

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