Recently I visited South Korea, where I spoke at length about AI with President Yoon Suk Yeol. Based on what I saw there in government, business, and academia, the nation is well positioned to become a strong AI hub. When he asked me if I would advise South Korea as a member of the Global AI Strategy Steering Group of the country’s National AI Committee, I agreed on the spot. I was delighted to learn this week that Yann LeCun has also joined. I’ve been consistently impressed by the thoughtful approach the Korean government has taken toward AI, with an emphasis on investment and innovation and a realistic understanding of risks without being distracted by science-fiction scenarios of harm.
I’ve advised many countries to build AI for the sectors where they’re strong. For example, I wrote previously that by investing in sectors like tourism and certain industrial areas, Thailand can do projects more efficiently than I can in Silicon Valley. South Korea’s tech ecosystem gives it a foundation to move fast even across numerous sectors. This emphasizes the long-term value for countries to become good at tech, because tech is now pervasive and affects all industries.
Korea has a very strong local software ecosystem. For example, the dominant search engine is not Google or Bing, but Naver (a Korean company). The dominant messaging system is not WhatsApp or WeChat, but KakaoTalk. With local tech giants Naver and Kakao offering email, mobile payment, cloud computing, ride sharing, and other services, the country has many sophisticated tech businesses. Additionally, SK hynix and Samsung are advanced semiconductor manufacturers. It also has a thriving entrepreneurship ecosystem, including Upstage, a language modeling startup, which taught a course with us on “Pretraining LLMs.” Finally, the Korean institutions Seoul National University, which I visited last year, and KAIST have global reputations.
Korea has a highly educated population, highly skilled software engineers, and a thriving set of software products. This gives it a fantastic foundation to embrace the next generation of AI.After meeting with businesses in retail, construction, insurance, cosmetics, telecoms, and other industries, I was delighted by the wide variety of opportunities many companies are pursuing across different industry sectors.
Lastly, Korea is known globally for its K-pop. Meeting Bang Si-Hyuk, the chairman of HYBE, which manages the superstar singing group BTS, and learning how the company operates was a real treat!
That’s why I’ve traveled to South Korea four times since last year. My venture studio AI Fund, which collaborates with many Korean companies, has benefited tremendously from the advice of many South Koreans, including Taizo Son, Changmook Kang, Hyungjun Kim, Sung Kim, JP Lee, Ian Park, and Alice Oh. I look forward to doing more in, and with, South Korea!
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