The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on the morning of the 7th that it held the first expert meeting on 'New Industry Policy in the Era of Artificial Intelligence (AI)' with Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Ahn Deok-geun in attendance.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy launched an expert committee last month to establish a 'new industry policy for the AI ​​era' and is currently pursuing a plan to derive AI-related policies over the next six months.

About 200 AI experts from academia, industry, and research are participating in this committee and are conducting discussions by division.

The meeting was organized to hear opinions on the prospects for AI's industrial use and industrial strategies in the AI ​​era from the perspectives of businesspeople who are utilizing AI in the field.

AI experts attended the event, including former KT CEO Ku Hyeon-mo, KAIST AI Graduate School Professor Jaesik Choi (CEO of INEEJI), Furiosa CEO Baek Jun-ho, and DN Solutions Vice President Lee Byeong-gon.

Professor Jaesik Choi, who gave the opening remarks at the symposium, diagnosed that “Korea’s current level of AI technology in the manufacturing sector is relatively low compared to leading global countries,” and said, “There will be a large gap in performance between leaders and followers in developing and introducing AI technology by 2030.”

Professor Choi urged that the government should quickly implement AI support policies to overcome these shortcomings.

Minister Ahn Deok-geun said, “As AI is developing very rapidly, ‘speed’ is very important in establishing utilization strategies,” and added, “Following the announcement of the AI ​​autonomous manufacturing strategy last month, we will push forward with policy establishment with a sense of urgency, such as announcing the AI ​​design expansion strategy this month.”

Minister Ahn continued, “In order to establish timely policies, an understanding of AI technology is essential,” and added, “We will continue to diligently learn about AI, including by continuously holding brown bag meetings (easy and free discussions over lunch) within the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to explore AI technology and ways to utilize it.”

Following the announcement of the 'AI Autonomous Manufacturing Strategy 1.0' last month, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy plans to prepare and announce strategies for six major fields, including design, research and development (R&D), energy, distribution, and AI semiconductors, every month.

An official from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said, “We will continue to communicate with experts from major academia and industry as well as the experts participating in the committee, and reflect the policy issues they raise in establishing new AI industry policies.”

dkkim@yna.co.kr