"AI's Four Great Scholars" Yann LeCun: "AI Investment Is Not a Bubble"

Yan Lecun, Co-Director of Global AI Frontier Lab
"Korea Achieving Top Research Across All Fields"
Emphasizes Big Tech's 'Openness' for AI Technology Advancement

Yann LeCun, a professor at New York University and one of the four leading scholars in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), expressed optimism about future growth amid controversies over AI overinvestment, stating, "If groundbreaking results emerge within 10 years, it will not be a waste." He highly evaluated South Korea's research competitiveness and said that Korea holds strengths in the AI industry. Along with this, he emphasized the importance of ‘openness,’ such as information sharing among leading big tech companies, for AI development.

Professor Yann LeCun of New York University delivered the keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 'Global AI Frontier Lab' held on the 24th (local time) at the Brooklyn MetroTech Center in New York, USA.
Photo by Ministry of Science and ICT

On the 24th (local time), Professor LeCun said at the opening ceremony of the 'Global AI Frontier Lab' held at the MetroTech Center in Brooklyn, New York, USA, "AI technology rapidly advanced in the 1980s, slowed down in the 1990s, and then accelerated again from the early 2010s due to industrial investment and the interest of young students and researchers," adding, "Although there is uncertainty, if it leads to groundbreaking achievements within 5 to 10 years, AI investment may not be a waste."

Professor LeCun co-directs the Global AI Frontier Lab together with Professor Kyunghyun Cho from the same university. At the opening ceremony, he delivered a keynote speech on the topic of 'The Direction AI Should Take and the Importance of Korea-US AI Cooperation.' In his keynote, he positively evaluated Korea's AI research, saying, "Alongside the United States, Korea is a country where the best research is conducted across the entire spectrum?from theory to algorithms, applications, hardware, and even robotics," and added, "Especially, it holds an excellent position in foundational technologies in electronics, manufacturing, and robotics."

Professor LeCun emphasized that big tech companies must cooperate and compete centered on openness for the rapid advancement of AI. He said, "Some companies like OpenAI and Google limit the sharing of technological and scientific information to maintain their advantage," and stressed, "Sharing scientific information and open-source platforms is necessary." He cited Meta as a model case of big tech ‘openness.’ Meta publicly released the code for LLaMa, an open-source large language model (LLM), last year. He explained that sharing open source allows many people to develop technology, which will ultimately accelerate AI progress.

Regarding concerns about the risks of AI development, Professor LeCun raised his voice against excessive regulation hindering technological progress. He said, "A small number of people are raising loud voices about AI risks, exaggerating their actual impact," and added, "Concerns about the existential risks of AI have led to unproductive regulations by some governments, which in turn make AI more dangerous." He continued, "Strongly advancing AI is the right approach," and reiterated the importance of openness by saying, "Basically, scientific information and open-source platforms must be shared."

On the 24th (local time), the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Institute for Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP) held the opening ceremony of the Global AI Frontier Lab. From the left: Hong Jin-bae, President of IITP; Professor Yann LeCun (Co-Director); Minister Yoo Sang-im; Linda Mills, President of New York University; Kim Kyung-man, Director of AI-Based Policy; Professor Han Wook-shin of POSTECH. Photo by Ministry of Science and ICT

Professor LeCun also highlighted the positive functions of AI. He emphasized, "AI can bridge the digital divide by providing accessibility to people who previously could not access technology," adding, "Even in remote areas of Africa or India, people can obtain information using a mobile phone without knowledge of computers or the internet." As an example, he predicted that AI smart glasses with translation functions could break language and cultural barriers.

He expressed a skeptical view on government-led AI investment. Professor LeCun explained, "Big tech has made enormous investments in talent, experts, and computing resources," and said, "Operating LLMs like ChatGPT requires massive computing resources and personnel, and currently, those costs are astronomically increasing." He judged, "Considering the need for data centers and other infrastructure requiring huge capital for AI development, no country in the world can match the efforts of big tech." This means that although governments in Middle Eastern countries such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), China, and Europe are investing in AI technology development, they lag behind big tech companies in competitiveness.

Professor LeCun is known as one of the four leading AI scholars along with Geoffrey Hinton of the University of Toronto, Andrew Ng of Stanford University, and Yoshua Bengio of the University of Montreal. He currently serves as a professor at New York University and as the chief AI scientist at Meta, the parent company of Facebook.

The Global AI Frontier Lab, co-directed by Professor LeCun, is an international joint research platform where Korean and American researchers collaboratively conduct R&D in ▲ foundational AI ▲ trustworthy AI ▲ medical and healthcare AI fields. Newly established at New York University, the Ministry of Science and ICT will invest 45 billion KRW over five years from this year to 2028, and NYU will invest approximately $31.5 million USD (about 41.816 billion KRW) in in-kind resources, personnel, and infrastructure.

The opening ceremony was attended by Yoo Sang-im, Minister of Science and ICT; Linda Mills, President of New York University; Hong Jin-bae, President of the Institute for Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP); and Andrew Kimball, Chairman of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. Minister Yoo said, "This is an important moment marking a new turning point in Korea-US AI cooperation and innovation," and added, "Let us expand the dimensions of the Korea-US partnership."