Baek Kyunghun: "Chinese Kimi Success Is Impressive... Korea Must Secure Independent AI Capabilities"

China Also Pursues AI as a Strategic Asset

A Two-Track Strategy Needed: DOKPAMO and Frontier AI Model Development

"Strengthening AI Service Competitiveness... Launching 'AI for All'"

On the first anniversary of his inauguration, Baek Kyunghun, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT, emphasized the importance of securing independent artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. He also expressed his commitment to advancing nationwide AI services and physical AI powered by proprietary AI models in order to free Korea from dependence on global AI companies.

At the press conference held on the morning of July 20 at the Government Complex Sejong to mark his first anniversary in office, Deputy Prime Minister Baek stated, "It is honestly enviable that AI startups in China are generating such impressive results."

Baek Gihun, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT, speaks at a press conference held at the Government Sejong Complex on the morning of the 20th, marking his first anniversary in office. Ministry of Science and ICT

On July 17, China's Moonshot AI unveiled its new AI model ‘Kimi K3’, a model with 2.8 trillion parameters. The Kimi K3 has been evaluated as on par with the latest U.S. models such as Anthropic's ‘Mythos’. Moonshot released this model with ‘open weights’, allowing anyone to freely modify and utilize it.

However, Baek assessed that the Chinese government's open AI policy is still part of a process to strategically turn AI models into national assets. He said, "While the United States is pursuing closed AI policies, China is pursuing openness. But eventually, China will likely follow the same steps as the United States. Once their objectives are achieved, they may shift to a closed approach, such as implementing export controls on AI models."

In this context, he repeatedly emphasized the need for Korea to secure its own independent AI capabilities in model development and services. Baek underlined, "If we do not secure our own AI capabilities, we may become dependent on global companies or subject to their pricing controls. This is why it is crucial to advance our own proprietary AI."

Regarding the upcoming second phase evaluation of the Indigenous AI Foundation Model (DOKPAMO) project next month, Baek evaluated, "Even if we continue to use foreign AI, we have succeeded in building consensus on the need for proprietary capabilities and sovereignty, which is meaningful."

He also reiterated his intention to independently develop a frontier-grade AI foundation model in addition to DOKPAMO. Baek noted, "Kimi K3 has proven that one can challenge the frontier models even at a lower cost. We too must pursue a two-track strategy: not only strengthening industrial competitiveness with DOKPAMO but also striving for a frontier model to achieve world-class AI competitiveness."

When asked about joining the AI coalition proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), Baek responded cautiously: "Many citizens are using U.S. AI services, while the industry is making use of China’s open-weight models. We need a policy discussion to determine what stance Korea should take between the U.S. and China."

Paik Kun-hoon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT, is speaking at a press conference held at the Government Sejong Complex on the morning of the 20th, marking his first anniversary in office. Ministry of Science and ICT

The Beginning of AI for All... Aiming for No.1 in Physical AI

Baek also announced plans to enhance the utilization of services such as AI agents based on AI models. He explained, "To prepare for the upcoming AI agent era, we will rapidly optimize platforms and tokens, and secure service competitiveness. We must think about how to fundamentally create competitive AI services, and this is why we are launching the ‘AI for All’ initiative." The AI for All project will provide services such as AI chatbots and agents to all citizens for free, with selected two to three companies receiving government support such as GPUs and budget allocations.

For Korea to become a global leader in physical AI—a goal set by the government—Baek pointed out that regulatory rationalization is necessary to secure and utilize data. He said, "To become a leader in the field of physical AI, we need to build entirely new systems for collecting physical AI data. It is essential to ease regulations and establish open transaction frameworks for data generated by companies, and to adapt training synthetic data to our systems."

Regarding the establishment of a low Earth orbit satellite communication network, Baek stated, "We are preparing with the goal of completion by 2035, and believe it will require launching over 200 satellites to complete the entire network. Not only must the satellites themselves be competitive, but we also need robust launch capabilities in terms of frequency and payload capacity to send up large numbers of satellites."

Reflecting on his first year in office, Deputy Prime Minister Baek said, "I believe we have laid the basic foundation for building the AI era and a society rooted in science and technology that we aim for. Now it is time to deliver results on this foundation, and I am determined to prove those results."

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Baek Kyunghoon (second from left) is speaking at the first anniversary press conference held on the morning of the 20th at the Government Complex Sejong. Koo Hyukchae, First Vice Minister; Baek Kyunghoon, Deputy Prime Minister; Ryu Jemyung, Second Vice Minister; and Park Inkyu, Head of the Science and Technology Innovation Headquarters. (from left) Ministry of Science and ICT

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.