Between the United States, which leads the development of the most advanced artificial intelligence models, and China, which is racing to reduce its technological dependence, South Korea is trying to forge its own path.
The country, which is home to two of the most important companies in the global semiconductor chain, has been benefiting from the explosion of investments in the sector. But, unlike the two biggest powers, it seems less concerned with creating the next ChatGPT than with answering a practical question: how to make technology relevant to the economy and ordinary people.
“Being number two is enough to spend. Being number three is complicated,” said Kim Woo-chang, presidential secretary for national artificial intelligence policy, commenting on market concentration in an interview with journalists.
The observation summarizes one of the main challenges facing the East Asian country.
Although Korea is among the world’s most advanced economies in areas such as semiconductors, connectivity and manufacturing, the generative AI race continues to focus on American and Chinese companies, which compete head to head for leadership, according to an edition of Stanford University’s AI Index published in April.
The Korean position, however, is not irrelevant, appearing in third place in the same report on issues such as the development of its own language models.
But the big assets are Samsung and SK Hynix, the world’s leading manufacturers of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, used in data centers and considered essential for the training and operation of advanced artificial intelligence systems such as those developed by OpenAI, Anthropic and DeepSeek.
Driven by the race for computing infrastructure, the shares of the two companies have accumulated an appreciation of around 140% (Samsung) and 200% (SK Hynix) this year, making them reach the restricted club of companies valued at more than US$1 trillion for the first time.
Despite this growing relevance, including for the Korean economy, the AI secretary states that the global debate is still excessively focused on models.
According to him, the most important transformation will occur when technology is widely incorporated into sectors such as health, education, industry and public services in order to increase efficiency and boost economic growth.
“I try to use the notion of AI transformation in a way that is orderly, peaceful, inclusive and human-centered. I don’t say this for convenience, but because it makes a lot of sense from a commercial point of view. Without this, I believe that the current wave of investments will not be sustainable. We need a use case at a national level, in which the healthcare system improves, the life expectancy of a given country increases and, consequently, the economy grows,” he said.
The vision helps explain why the Korean government has insisted on an agenda that combines investments in infrastructure, training talent and expanding the use of technology in different sectors.
Part of this urgency is also economic. South Korea faces one of the lowest fertility rates in the world (0.8 children per woman in 2025) and a rapidly aging population. At the same time, it deals with growing Chinese competition in sectors that have driven local development for decades, such as electronics, steel, chemicals and manufacturing.
In this context, even small productivity gains have become a necessity, and AI is seen by authorities, researchers and entrepreneurs as one of the main tools to solve this puzzle.
Last week, the report visited projects linked to the use of artificial intelligence in areas such as health, education, urban management and manufacturing in the country. They all shared a similar logic: using technology to expand the capabilities of existing systems, from medical records to advanced robotics.
The perception also appeared in the private sector. Founded ten years ago as an educational technology startup, Elice has redirected itself in recent years to equipment focused on artificial intelligence. Today, the company operates processing centers focused on AI applications and is betting on modular, more portable and cost-effective data centers, as an alternative to increasingly competitive traditional models.
For the startup’s CEO, Kim Jaewon, Korea can occupy an intermediate position in an increasingly polarized scenario. “We can be a third, more neutral country,” he said in an interview at the company’s headquarters.
According to him, many countries are looking for ways to develop their own AI capabilities without completely depending on American or Chinese platforms. The company’s bet today is to offer the basis that allows this development in a more accessible way – the segment already represents 70% of revenues, surpassing the original business.
“The cost of using AI models is increasing, so I believe the gap between AI-enabled countries and less AI-capable countries will widen. One of our goals is to reduce this gap,” he said.
Whether the universalization strategy will guarantee broad results for the entire economy is still unknown, also subject to advances in technology.
A sign of this is that the legal framework that supports part of this vision of the Korean government, the AI Basic Act, had its validity postponed by a year to contemplate possible new changes. For Kim Woo-chang, President Lee Jae-myung’s secretary for the sector, 80% of the law aims to facilitate advances, while 20% can be considered regulation.
“There will be side effects, no doubt, but if the outcome of the transformation is extremely positive, there is no reason to talk about regulation. We hope that the transformation caused by AI will be orderly, peaceful, inclusive and human-centered. And I admit that it is not a trivial task. It is a huge challenge, especially considering that the AI ecosystem is dominated by the US and China.”
“Maybe we are on the cusp of a completely different world. And, in some way, we will have the chance to define what the future will be like,” he said.
Source: www.noticiasaominuto.com.br
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