According to the Yonhap News Agency, South Korea's ICT sector said on Tuesday that South Korea will invest 2.2 trillion won in the next five years to develop core artificial intelligence (AI) technology to become a global giant in the field by 2022.
According to the plan announced by the Ministry of Science and Information and Communications, the Korean government will take the lead in the development of a national artificial intelligence program including R&D to join the ranks of the world's most powerful countries.
Chang Byung-gyu, chairman of the Korean Industrial Revolution presidential committee, said: 'The government believes that by joining hands with private companies, acquiring core technologies in artificial intelligence will not only meet global standards, but will eventually cultivate talent and produce high-quality work. Our goal is to reach the top four globally by 2022. '
The South Korean government stated that its goal is to independently develop technologies comparable to its counterparts under the leadership of the United States and China, and ultimately reduce their reliance on them.
South Korean officials said that the department will take the lead in carrying out large-scale artificial intelligence projects in the fields of national defense, medicine, and security. The government will conduct detailed studies in the first half of this year to decide whether to start a one-trillion won won artificial intelligence chip R&D project.
The department said that artificial intelligence based processors have great potential for application in various deep learning technologies, such as neural network computing.
The department will further allocate budgets for the development and research of brain sciences. Brain science is considered the basis for the next generation of artificial intelligence technologies including machine learning and neural networks.
The South Korean government stated that it also realizes that it needs to cooperate with start-up companies and companies in this field to research cutting-edge technologies.
The department said that the global artificial intelligence market is expected to reach 52.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, up from 7.81 billion U.S. dollars in 2016.