Anchor: South Korea is aiming to develop its own large-scale artificial intelligence(AI) model to compete with the likes of Chat GPT. Acting President Choi Sang-mok revealed Thursday that the government will provide full support to strengthen the domestic AI sector so the country can become one of the top AI powerhouses in the world. 
Rosyn Park has more.

Report: Acting President Choi Sang-mok said now is a critical time for the public and private sectors to join forces to reinforce the country’s AI capabilities so it can emerge as a powerhouse in the field. 

He made the remarks while presiding over the third meeting of the National Artificial Intelligence Committee in Seoul on Thursday, held to discuss ways to foster local AI research and development(R&D).

He stressed government support for AI startup creation to expand local infrastructure, such as computing resources and data, and to become the world’s No.1 country in terms of AI utilization and industrialization.

With the aim of developing a large language model that can compete with ChatGPT, a leading AI chatbot created by U.S.-based OpenAI, the government said it will establish a so-called AI national elite team composed of top talent and researchers from South Korea and abroad.

Also announced were plans to secure a total of 180-thousand high-performance graphics processing units(GPUs), critical for AI development, by 2026 to keep up with the demand for AI computing. 

More tax support, efforts to increase private investment in AI data centers, and improvements to related power and data systems were also discussed.

In addition, there are plans to create and operate an AI fund worth about three trillion won, or about 2 billion U.S. dollars, by 2027 to support the growth of startups specializing in AI services. 

Loans and guarantees worth up to 10 billion won each will be provided for 100 manufacturing AI companies under the new plan.
Rosyn Park, KBS World Radio News.