Korea way behind in artificial intelligence

By Choi Sung-jin

The “match of the century” between human and computer go masters has brought home the fact that Korea is far behind other countries in the area of artificial intelligence.

According to Hyundai Research Institute, the global AI market is expected to grow from about $127 billion in 2015 to $165 billion in 2017, an average annual increase of 14-percent. Worldwide investment in AI startups has soared from $45 million in 2010 to $310 million last year.

The domestic market is estimated to expand from 3.6 trillion won ($3 billion) in 2013 to 6.4 trillion won in 2017. Although a few IT giants are pushing ahead with research and investment, their efforts are still concentrated in limited areas, such as games and the Internet.

The government will invest 38 billion won a year into AI-related fields, but this is far short of the U.S. and Europe.

“The Korean government is hurrying to work out policies to develop the AI industry, but it is starting too late and investment remains a fraction of that of industrial countries,” said Chang Woo-seok, a researcher at the institute.

The situation is not much better in the private sector, either. The number of AI-related businesses in Korea was between 24 and 64 depending on classification standards, accounting for only 2.5 percent to 6.7 percent of global AI startups. This is too small a share, especially given the nation’s status in the global ICT industry. Large companies’ investment in the AI sector is also far short of their U.S. and Chinese competitors, the report says.

It is little surprise then that Korea’s technological base is far weaker than that of industrial countries.

The Korean AI software’s technological level is estimated to remain at 75 percent of top-notch countries and its application of software technology is at 74 percent of the latter. For example, the number of patents registered by Korean companies with databases in the U.S., Japan, Korea and Patent Cooperation Treaty stood at only 306, only 3 percent of the total 11,613, accounting for 5 percent of the U.S. and 10 percent of Japan.

The institute called for a change in policy direction to a greater openness and sharing, expanding the public sector’s pump-priming investment, conducting national research and development project and expanding support for industry-academy-research cooperation.

“All these steps are needed for the early establishment of supportive infrastructure from the public sector,” it said.

The report added that to help create an AI ecosystem in the private sector, the government also needs to encourage corporate investment through various policy incentives, expand tax and financial benefits to reinvigorate the fusion of AI technologies in the manufacturing sector, and enhance support for startups to help service businesses make the most of AI.

“If the nation wants to take the technological initiative in global markets, it also must come up with systematic ways to foster AI experts,” it added.