Gwangju City Selected for AI Convergence Public Project by Ministry of Science and ICT

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[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] Gwangju Metropolitan City has been selected for the new project competitions of the ‘AI Convergence Regional Specialized Industry Support Project’ and the ‘AI Convergence Energy Efficiency Project,’ hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National IT Industry Promotion Agency, securing 6.2 billion KRW in national funding over two years until 2023.

The ‘AI Convergence Regional Specialized Industry Support Project’ aims to strengthen the competitiveness of regional specialized industries by integrating artificial intelligence (AI) to improve productivity and quality, and to foster related AI specialized companies.

Accordingly, the Gwangju Information & Culture Industry Promotion Agency, as the lead organization, along with six regional AI companies, formed a consortium to introduce AI solutions to five local demand companies, providing technological competitiveness and initial business opportunities.

Specifically, AI convergence technology will be applied to regional companies in the healthcare sector to develop and implement 10 solutions including ‘Healthcare Data Management.’ Gwangju expects this to increase company productivity by more than 7%, contributing to strengthening regional industrial competitiveness through increased sales and job creation.

Additionally, a demonstration lab will be established at the Jeonil Building on Geumnam-ro, Dong-gu, providing an environment where local companies can process and validate various data. The total project cost is 6.7 billion KRW, including 3.7 billion KRW in national funding over two years.

Meanwhile, the selected ‘AI Convergence Energy Efficiency Project’ will identify manufacturing plants in national industrial complexes and form a consortium of AI specialized companies to collect energy consumption data, optimize equipment operation using AI, and conduct energy efficiency demonstrations at demand factories.

Collaboration between AI specialized companies in the energy sector and local companies will enhance synergy in AI solution development. In particular, the AI Industry Convergence Project Group, participating as a partner institution, will support infrastructure (high-performance computing resources, storage, etc.) for developing energy efficiency algorithms and model validation, and contribute to the commercialization of related companies using the collected data.

With a total project cost of 3.1 billion KRW (2.5 billion KRW national funding, 0.6 billion KRW private investment), targeting manufacturing plants such as Gwangju Advanced (5 companies), the project plans to achieve a 10% energy savings rate through the introduction of AI solutions like ‘Power Consumption and Equipment Operation Optimization and AI Model Development.’

Gwangju City will continue to form consortia with related organizations, domestic AI specialized companies, and local companies to discover demand companies within the region and activate corporate support through AI solution demonstrations, AI convergence productization, and service development, fostering AI specialized talent and creating an AI innovation ecosystem.

Choi Tae-jo, Director of the AI Policy Division, stated, “We expect to achieve productivity improvement and enhanced energy consumption efficiency by integrating AI technology into regional industries,” adding, “We will actively promote digital transformation in regional strategic industry sectors going forward.”

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