Korea to nurture artificial intelligence, robot as new cash cow

President Park Geun-hye tours the KT booth while a company employee uses a virtual reality (VR) simulator for ski jumping during the Korea VR Festival at Nuridream Square, western Seoul, Oct. 7. / Courtesy of KT

By Lee Hyo-sik

Many are beginning to wonder whether Korea can continue to remain as one of the world's industrial powerhouses in the coming years as shipbuilding, steel and other major manufacturing industries have hit a snag amid the prolonged global economic slump.

Some say that the country will successfully tide itself over its current difficulties and find new growth engines, keeping pace with the league of global elites. But others are not as optimistic, saying that Korea could end up becoming a second-tier economy after failing to nurture new sources of growth.

According to government officials and industry analysts, the fate of Asia's fourth-largest economy largely depends on whether it can emerge as a global leader in the ongoing digital revolution that has been occurring over the past few years, dubbed the fourth industrial revolution.

Realizing the importance of fostering virtual reality (VR), artificial intelligence (AI), self-driving cars, robots and other newly-emerging technologies, Korea is beginning to shift its focus to the increasing technological conversion that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres.

The Park Geun-hye administration recently unveiled a master plan to nurture these new businesses as the country's new growth engines to revitalize the sagging economy and create much-needed jobs.

According to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, the government will spend 2.2 trillion won ($1.9 billion) over the next 10 years to foster self-driving cars, smart cities, AI, VR, and augmented reality (AR) as the nation's new cash cows.

As for self-driving vehicles, the government will extend financial and other support to automakers and auto parts producers for developing and commercializing key components by 2019. If the plan goes as scheduled, policymakers expect that autonomous cars will be on the road by 2024.

Korea also wants to nurture smart city industry as a new export item for the Middle East and other developing regions by 2021. The government wants to integrate information communication technology with the Internet of Things (IoT) to manage a city's assets in a more secure and energy-efficient manner.

"The government will also spend a large portion of money to develop an AI platform that processes language, voice and visual content by 2018," a ministry official said. "We will then introduce a more advanced platform, which can assist humans in the areas of healthcare and education. From 2022, we would like to come up with intelligent AI, capable of processing a wide range of professional knowledge."

The government also plans to nurture at least 50 startups specializing in VR and AR and help them introduce revolutionary products such as Pokemon Go.

Fourth Industrial Revolution as job creator

By actively capitalizing on the fourth industrial revolution, the government also seeks to create much-needed jobs for young people amid deteriorating job market conditions.

"President Park has been touting the fourth industrial revolution as a solution to bolstering the number of decent jobs for young people," the ministry official said. "She has been very much active in attending a range of events, highlighting VR, AR, self-driving cars and other digitally-integrated industries. In a strong partnership with the private sector, the government can play a key role in nurturing newly-emerging technologies as a new value creator for tourism, healthcare, national defense and many other areas."

By 2025, Korea's VR and AR market is projected to reach $4 billion, up from $130 million in 2018, according to the ministry. The global market will grow to $80 billion from $13.4 billion over the same period.

To take advantage of the VR market's growth potential, the government plans to invest about 280 billion won over the next five years, while expecting the private sector will pour 126 billion won into the sector, to develop new products and narrow its technology gap with advanced countries.

The plan will focus on developing new and indigenous VR technologies.

"VR is an area where we may have potential to become a global leader by combining the country's advanced ICT and our hallyu content that has attracted huge fans across the globe," the official said.

In addition, the government will invest over 500 billion won in taxpayer money over the next five years to nurture the robotic industry as a new growth engine.

In cooperation with Hanwha Techwin, Hyundai Heavy Industries and other manufacturers, the Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials and other state-run institutes will create a standard model for a fully-automated smart factory by 2018.

The government will also finance projects aimed at developing and commercializing "service" robots that can replace human laborers in transport, healthcare and many other industries. By 2020, the project aims to introduce more than 20 types of service robots.

For instance, policymakers plan to deploy robots during the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics and use them to transport the athletes' luggage and gear, and guide athletes and visitors through various venues.

The government will also spend 15 billion won to nurture talented manpower in robotics, in partnership with universities and research institutes, as well as secure core technologies.