[New Wave] Korean New Deal Leading the 4th Industrial Revolution

The world is currently experiencing an intelligence revolution triggered by digital technologies such as hyperconnectivity, big data, and artificial intelligence (AI), known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, facing a monumental civilizational change. In particular, the advancement of big data and AI technologies not only leads the transformation of production methods to increase productivity and the creation of high value-added new industries such as autonomous driving and smart cities, resulting in changes in job structures, but also contributes to overall social transformation by enhancing convenience and welfare in citizens' lives through personalized services. However, there are concerns about the generation of unemployment and economic polarization during the process of economic and industrial structural changes, which has led to a public demand for strengthening job safety nets.

Although there are mixed positive and negative views on the changes brought about by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, it is evident that the fields of big data and AI are causing paradigm shifts across all areas of our society beyond mere technological dimensions. Recently, at a time when digital transformation is accelerating, the government proposed the Korean New Deal (Digital New Deal) as part of a national development strategy to overcome the crisis caused by the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and to lead the global economy and prepare for the future.

The core of the Korean New Deal is to realize a smart society based on strengthening the DNA (Data·Network·AI) ecosystem. It aims to create a data dam by opening 140,000 public data sets and provide data from tens of thousands of companies to build a public-private data platform that enables data production, distribution, and utilization across all sectors of the nation and society. The main point is to promote economic dynamism through accelerating the digital economy by integrating 5G communication and AI across all industrial sectors. Additionally, it seeks to innovate citizen-centered public services by digitizing various urgent services and utilizing AI to proactively find and provide tailored services to citizens in need without blind spots.

In the welfare sector, for example, AI-based healthcare robots initiate conversation if elderly users remain silent for more than 30 minutes and automatically connect to caregivers or life managers if there is no movement for over 5 hours, providing services for vulnerable groups. Furthermore, a smart health management system is emerging to overcome rare and incurable diseases using bio big data from one million people. In agriculture, intelligent technologies enable container farms that control the environment according to farm size and crop demand to maximize the harvest of high-quality crops. The New Deal is also expected to yield results in various areas such as finance, public safety, and administration.

Korea possesses strengths suitable for AI, including a high level of education, receptiveness to new technologies, world-class ICT infrastructure, and semiconductor and manufacturing technologies. Therefore, it is necessary to concentrate national capabilities not only to advance AI technology but also to invigorate industries, solve social problems, and achieve people-centered social innovation. This cannot be accomplished by government efforts alone. Companies, industries, academia, experts, and citizens as consumers and participants in social discourse?the very stakeholders leading the AI era?must unite.

The Presidential Committee on the Fourth Industrial Revolution, launched in the second half of 2017, continues its trajectory with the AI national strategy announced jointly by ministries last December and the Korean New Deal announced this August. Centered on the Fourth Industrial Revolution Committee, preparations across the nation and society are necessary to lead the post-COVID-19 era, and visible achievements of the Korean New Deal, combined with public participation and support, are anticipated.

Jeong Won-jun, Associate Professor, Department of Media Communication, Suwon University