[Inside Chodong] Building Infrastructure Comes First for Becoming a Top 3 AI Power

Despite Soaring Demand for Talent, Support Remains Inadequate
Urgent Need for Increased Education Funding and Research Investment
Policies Needed to Strengthen Future Growth Engines

"Just as the government laid ADSL lines 30 years ago, enabling our country to emerge as an internet powerhouse, the government's top priority for becoming one of the world's top three AI powers should be infrastructure. If the infrastructure is in place, the private sector can freely develop their businesses on top of it."

A professor from a leading computer engineering department in Seoul, whom the reporter recently met, emphasized that the most important task for the government to help Korea become a global AI leader is building infrastructure. The professor explained that the advent of ADSL ushered in the internet era, and the deployment of 3G networks marked the beginning of the smartphone era. In the same way, for the AI era to unfold, it is urgent to establish infrastructure such as graphics processing units (GPUs). The professor also stressed that since talent is a core component of infrastructure, systematic support for universities, which are at the forefront of nurturing AI talent, must come first.

With the recent AI boom, the number of students wishing to major in computer engineering and related fields has increased several times over. Even at Seoul National University, where enrollment numbers had long been capped, the computer engineering department will increase its quota by 21 students next year. According to major universities in Seoul, demand from students seeking to gain a foothold in the promising field of AI through double majors, minors, and interdisciplinary programs is skyrocketing.

However, the infrastructure needed to educate these students?including facilities, equipment, and faculty?is severely lacking. Universities require high-performance GPU servers to conduct AI-related research projects, but these are woefully insufficient in educational settings. In reality, it is said that a single graduate student running an AI server for a thesis project may have to bear costs amounting to tens of millions of won. One computer engineering professor lamented, "The scale of AI infrastructure needed matches the scale of our ambitions," adding, "When a doctoral student in the lab receives a bill of 20 million won, it is truly discouraging." The current situation is that demand for AI studies is surging due to the AI boom, but the system cannot keep up.

The Lee Jaemyung administration has established the position of Chief of AI Future Planning and recruited Ha Jungwoo, formerly of NAVER, to lead various foundational initiatives aimed at making Korea an AI powerhouse. In line with this, Baek Kyunghoon, head of the LG AI Research Institute, has been nominated as the new Minister of Science and ICT, marking the first time a private sector expert will lead the country's AI strategy. In addition, the current National Policy Planning Committee is seriously considering elevating the Ministry of Science and ICT to the status of Deputy Prime Minister's office to realize President Lee's top pledge of making Korea one of the world's top three AI powers.

The industry has high expectations for a field-experienced professional who understands the practical challenges of the rapidly growing AI sector to take the helm of the AI control tower. In particular, since AI talent is just as important as infrastructure such as GPUs, there is a strong call for the government to include a blueprint for talent development in its policy planning. Academia states, "After semiconductors and smartphones, the third growth engine that will sustain our country is AI," and asks, "What should Korea do and how should it survive over the next 30 years? Since our survival depends on it, we hope the government will do everything it can to support us." The hope is that the Lee Jaemyung administration will benchmark the proactive policy support of the Kim Daejung administration?which succeeded in building high-speed internet infrastructure and elevating Korea to an IT powerhouse?and devote itself to laying the foundation for achieving the goal of becoming an AI powerhouse.