Yoon vows government support for hyper-scale AI industry

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol announces at the 20th emergency economic meeting on Sep. 13. [Photo by Yonhap]

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Wednesday that the government will provide support to the country’s hyper-scale artificial intelligence (AI) industry, vowing to play a role in encouraging companies to make bold investments.

“We will support the growth of hyper-scale AI companies so that all digital-based industries can develop and take a leap forward,” Yoon said, in an economic meeting on Wednesday.

Hyper-scale AI refers to AI that is capable of comprehensive cognition, judgment, and reasoning just as humans by learning large amounts of data.

Representatives from large companies including SK telecom Co., KT Corp., Kakao Corp., LG Group, and Naver Corp., and small- and medium-sized enterprises and startups such as Flickr, Upstage, Conan Technology Inc., and Scatter Lab, Inc. attended the meeting.

Yoon’s remarks echo what he said at the opening ceremony of the World Knowledge Forum earlier this week.

“The government has selected 12 advanced strategic technologies, including AI, and is intensively fostering them,” he said. “Six of them will be supported by public-private investment worth 550 trillion won ($414.2 billion) by 2026.”

The government said on the same day that it plans to invest 900 billion won next year in disaster response and public administration to make AI a part of everyday life for all citizens.

“The development of AI depends on fostering excellent human resources,” Yoon said during the meeting, stressing that “the government should provide much material support.”

He said that the government is currently promoting the establishment of a high school for AI talents and an AI academy in Gwangju, support for the advanced AI semiconductor industry, and investment in large-scale clouds for data management.

“The government’s support is an enabler for companies to make bold investments and challenges,” Yoon said. “Ultimately, private investment and challenges will determine our hyper-scale AI competition.”

Yoon emphasized the need for the public and private sectors to come together to expand the domestic AI industry into the global stage.

The interest in AI industry comes from the belief that it can add significant value to the industry.

Yoon noted that AI and digital capabilities determine the level of an industry, saying that AI and digital create tremendous added value by themselves and can be combined with other technologies and industries to create customized added value and many high-quality jobs.

“AI has a tremendous impact not only on the downstream and upstream industries, including semiconductors, data, and platform services, but also on national security,” Yoon said.