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South Korea ramps up support for AI industry

Published: October 28, 2019

President Moon promises new ‘AI National Strategy’ . . . 

South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in vowed to increase support for the artificial intelligence (AI) industry at the country’s largest AI-related industry event. He noted a new AI national strategy will be developed, and that he will push for deregulation and expansion of subsidies. He also noted that the government has allocated US$1.45 billion to the areas of data, network, and AI this year, and signalled support for startups and AI education.

‘South Korea’s Google’ unveils its own international research strategy . . .

At the same conference, the head of Naver Labs, Seok Sang-ok, unveiled the company’s ‘Global AI Research Belt.’ Naver is the most popular search engine in South Korea, and has been a leading AI player, with applications in robotics and automated driving. Naver’s new strategy will leverage the company’s research centres in South Korea, Japan, France, and Southeast Asia (mainly Vietnam) to conduct transnational research. In 2017, the company purchased XRCE, a research institute in France, gaining access to 80 of the top European experts. Seok noted the company’s long-term goal of making Naver competitive vis-à-vis Western giants such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple and Chinese giants such as Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, and Huawei.

Great ambitions, but . . .

On the same day, South Korea’s Prosecutors’ Office indicted one of the country’s leading startups, Tada, underscoring the realities of a regulatory environment that does not match the ambitious announcements of the government. Tada, which launched in October 2018, quickly became the country’s leading ride-hailing service. However, the association of taxi drivers in Seoul filed a complaint earlier this year, and prosecutors chose to indict the two company heads on Monday for illegal operation of a business.

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