Post by National AI Research Lab (NAIRL)

We are pleased to share that Kee-Eung Kim, Director of the National AI Research Lab (NAIRL), was recently featured in Maeil Business Newspaper (매일경제). In this in-depth interview, Director Kim discussed why securing foundational technologies must precede the rise of vertical AI, and outlined NAIRL's role as a defensive line for Korea's technological sovereignty. Key Takeaways from the Interview: • Vertical AI is essential to market activation, but its long-term sustainability depends on securing frontier models and foundational technologies at the national level. • Reliance on global big tech models may appear efficient short term, but a single policy shift from those providers could destabilize Korea's entire industrial base. • Sovereign AI is no longer differentiated by language or cultural fluency alone. True differentiation lies in the capability to independently develop and control AI when deployed atop Korea's strengths in semiconductors, robotics, and manufacturing. • NAIRL's research focuses on foundational capabilities such as model compression, knowledge distillation, distributed training, and novel architectures, the technologies that reshape the underlying capacity of AI itself. • "Brain drain" should be reframed as "brain circulation," building a virtuous cycle in which globally active Korean scholars channel knowledge and technology back into the domestic ecosystem. Our sincere thanks to reporter Minseo Goh for the thoughtful interview and coverage. 🔗 Read the full interview (Korean): https://lnkd.in/gD5RjCEW #국가AI연구거점 #과학기술정보통신부 #정보통신기획평가원 #MSIT #IITP #KAIST #고려대 #연세대 #POSTECH