Korea unveils 1st defense AI center to power next-generation combat systems

The Ministry of National Defense inaugurated a physical artificial intelligence (AI) research center Monday at Pangyo Techno Valley — a sprawling high-tech hub south of Seoul often hailed as Korea's Silicon Valley for its heavy concentration of tech giants, startups, and advanced research facilities.

The opening marks the start of an ambitious national project to train humanoid robots and autonomous machines for high-risk military missions, such as mine clearance, explosive ordnance disposal and hazardous chemical reconnaissance.

Led by Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul, the launch event brought together roughly 150 officials from government agencies, academic institutions and defense industries, including representatives from the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Presidential National AI Committee.

Operated in partnership with Ajou University, the Pangyo facility is the first of five specialized regional defense AI hubs planned across the nation. While Pangyo will focus on hardware-software integration — collecting physical operational data to train humanoid and multilegged robots for dangerous field tasks — subsequent centers will tackle other cutting-edge applications.

A facility in Yongsan in central Seoul will focus on command-and-control applications using classified military data, while a site in Daejeon, in the central part of the country, supported by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, will target agentic AI. Additional centers in the southern port city of Busan and Yangjae in southern Seoul will specialize in maritime logistics and automated target recognition for the Air Force.

The initiative comes at a critical juncture for Korea’s armed forces.

Facing severe demographic shifts and a rapidly shrinking pool of military-age conscripts, the armed forces are increasingly turning to autonomous hardware to sustain operational readiness, minimize human casualties and modernize their defense posture against evolving regional threats.

"The defense AI hubs are spaces where field experience from our armed forces meets the technology and wisdom of academia and industry," Kang said during the opening ceremony. "Rapid technological advances have created a battlefield where what we think actually exists. These centers are our first step into that era."

The defense ministry said it plans to expand joint research programs across all five hubs, creating an integrated ecosystem that translates civilian software and robotics directly onto the front lines.

This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.