'The Eccentric President's Proposal: The 3 Inevitable Technologies, Not the 3 Game Changers'

"Need to Foster AI Semiconductors, Stem Cells/Gene Editing, Climate/Energy Technologies"
Emphasizing Regulatory Improvement with Autonomous Driving Example
Requesting Legislative System Supplementation to the National Assembly
"Future Prediction Also a KAIST Mission"

"AI technology, in which the Republic of Korea is globally prominent, is one of the inevitable technologies of the 21st century that will determine the nation's future. The strategy necessary for the development of such an important inevitable technology can be completed through legislative improvements in the National Assembly."

President Kwang-Hyung Lee of KAIST is answering reporters' questions after a lecture held at the National Assembly Library on the 27th. Photo by Jongmin Baek

On the morning of the 27th, Lee Kwang-hyung, President of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), emphasized the importance of the technologies that Korea should focus on now during a special lecture hosted by the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting and Communications Committee at the National Assembly Library Auditorium. Choi Min-hee, Chairperson of the Science and Technology Committee, and Kim Hyun and Choi Hyung-doo, the committee's floor leaders, stopped political disputes for the day and attentively listened to the candid remarks of the eccentric president until the lecture ended.

In the lecture titled "Inevitable Technologies of the 21st Century and Korea's Strategy," President Lee defined technologies that are essential and unavoidable for human progress as "Inevitable Technologies."

The inevitable technologies emphasized by President Lee differ somewhat from the government's three designated game-changer technologies. The government's three game-changer technologies are AI semiconductors, advanced bio, and quantum.

President Lee's inevitable technologies include AI semiconductors as well, but he condensed advanced bio into stem cells and gene editing, and replaced quantum with climate and energy technologies. He said, "Quantum is important, but it requires a 100-year outlook. That is why I chose climate and energy."

The criteria President Lee used to select these technologies are based on three human instincts: convenience, health needs, and human survival.

President Lee stated, "If we look at the principles of human progress, history has unfolded through the interaction between the environment and humans. The emergence of new technologies that clash with traditional ideas causes social confusion and challenges, but countries that have managed and utilized these well at the national level have actually prospered."

Using Germany as an example, President Lee pointed out, "Germany is an industrially leading country, but it uses American services for search, shopping, and social networking services." He continued, "Currently, the global digital landscape is centered around countries that have their own portals: the United States, China, Russia, and Korea. In the future, the countries that can possess independent artificial intelligence (AI) will be the United States, China, and Korea. I believe AI will enable a tripartite division of the world similar to the Three Kingdoms period's strategy of dividing the realm (天下三分之計)." He also emphasized, "We need to designate AI as a national strategic industry and provide national-level support to form alliances with Southeast Asian and Arab countries."

Following this, President Lee elaborated on stem cells and gene editing, which are closely related to the basic human need for health, as well as climate and energy technologies for sustainable human survival and prosperity in the era of climate crisis. He identified carbon capture and fusion technologies as relevant climate and energy technologies.

President Lee warned, "If we fall behind in inevitable technologies, it will be difficult to create jobs and the happiness of the people will decline." He added, "To pursue both traditional ideas and national prosperity simultaneously, compromise between ideology and technology is necessary, and the National Assembly is the place for such compromise." He urged the attending lawmakers to work on legislative improvements for inevitable technologies. He also stressed that legislative improvements cost no money and can be more effective than increasing research funding by one trillion won.

As an example, President Lee mentioned autonomous vehicles. He explained, "Regulatory relaxation at the level of the United States and maintaining the current insurance system where producers and consumers share accident risk jointly are necessary to secure the future autonomous vehicle industry."

Choi Min-hee, Chairperson of the Science and Technology Committee, said, "I never thought about insurance for autonomous vehicles. After reading President Lee Kwang-hyung's book, I thought we need to change our thinking quickly, so I invited him to give this lecture. He provided solutions for the direction we should take, and I hope politicians will think together with geniuses from the corporate sector."

President Lee is very interested in future strategies that will guide the nation's direction. He also led the establishment of the MoonSul Graduate School of Future Strategy at KAIST. After the lecture, he told reporters, "The KAIST Basic Act currently focuses on technologies for national industrial development, but a future-oriented perspective is important," emphasizing the need to revise the KAIST Act. He explained that if the law defines its mission, it will be able to focus more on research. Democratic Party lawmaker Cha Ji-ho proposed an amendment to the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology Act to include matters related to national future strategy research as part of KAIST's founding purpose.