'AI Father' Schmidt-Huber: "What We've Known for Thousands of Years Will Completely Change"

Lecture at Icheon Forum on the 19th

Professor Juergen Schmidthofer, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). Photo by Juergen Schmidthofer X account

"Everything that people have known for thousands of years will be completely replaced by something entirely different."

J?rgen Schmidhuber, known as the 'Father of AI' and a professor at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, stated this on the 19th at the SK Group's 'Icheon Forum 2024' held at the Walkerhill Hotel in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul.

In a lecture conducted via video conference, Professor Schmidhuber was asked, "How will the pace of AI development change in the future?" He replied, "I believe tremendous growth will be added," explaining, "The cost of computing is becoming ten times cheaper every five years. This means that in 30 years, it will be 1 million times cheaper." He continued, "AI will learn how to inspect, modify, and improve its own learning algorithms," and predicted, "More and more tasks will be automated, eventually leading to a society composed of large-scale physical machines."

Professor Schmidhuber anticipated that various types of generative AI will emerge and grow, benefiting everyone rather than just a few large corporations. He said, "Everyone will own affordable, powerful, and transparent AI, improving their lives in many ways."

SK Group held the opening ceremony of the Icheon Forum on this day, starting a three-day schedule until the 21st. Now in its 8th year, this year's Icheon Forum focuses intensively on the field of AI. Earlier, at the management strategy meeting held in June, SK Group announced bold investment plans in AI and semiconductor sectors. The first day of the event on the 19th, themed around AI, was attended by SK Chairman Chey Tae-won, SK Senior Vice Chairman Chey Jae-won, SK Supex Council Chairman Chey Chang-won, key executives of affiliates, and outside directors. Additionally, about 100 participants including leaders from various AI sectors, the Center for Social Value Enhancement Studies (CSES), the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Ulsan Chamber of Commerce and Industry were present.

The first lecture of the day was delivered by Yoo Young-sang, CEO of SK Telecom, who said, "If support is provided for the Korean-style Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Korea will soon become a country with advanced AI infrastructure." In his lecture titled 'How to Prepare for the Coming Era of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)?', Yoo introduced SK Group's AI strategies including AI chips, AI data centers, and AI personal assistant services.

Yoo Young-sang, CEO of SK Telecom, stated, "SK Group will consolidate the capabilities of its member companies and strengthen AI value chain leadership from AI services to AI infrastructure to quickly seize opportunities brought by AI changes," adding, "Hynix is gaining an advantage with high-bandwidth memory (HBM) in AI chips, and will invest more than 82 trillion won over the next five years to further enhance competitiveness."

Yoo said, "We have boldly invested in the domestic AI data center market to become a leading company, and globally, we will establish a business model as an AI data center solution provider," and added, "In this process, to solve the biggest challenge of AI data centers?the energy issue?we plan to intensively utilize solutions from energy member companies within the group."