Government announced "K-AI New Deal Strategy"…Honam will be fostered as "National AI Innovation Base"

The Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Lim, Hye-sook) confirmed and announced the "direction for the spread of artificial intelligence to regions" jointly prepared by 17 cities, provinces, and related ministries at the 25th Fourth Industrial Revolution Committee (presided over by Yoon Sung-ro).

The Ministry of Science and ICT has analyzed the local main industries, field demand, and policy promotion & limitations by each local government along with 17 cities and provinces nationwide over the past year and has set up an 'artificial intelligence regional diffusion strategy' to spread the achievements of artificial intelligence and digital new deal beyond the central and metropolitan areas to the field and whole industries of the people nationwide.

So far, the government has been working on the national strategy of artificial intelligence (2019.12), Digital New Deal (2020.7 ~) and tried to improve national artificial intelligence capacity. As a result, the 'Artificial Intelligence Preparation Index (*Oxford Insight, UK, 2020)' jumped from 26th to 7th (2020).

In addition, the government said it is continuing to make efforts to establish a base for the spread of artificial intelligence in the region through the Gwangju Artificial Intelligence Complex Project (2020 ~ 2024, 393.9 billion won) and the regional balanced New Deal (2020.10 ~).

Despite these achievements and efforts, the economic difficulties in each region of Korea are increasing due to the slowdown in the growth of the main industries and the COVID-19, and the government analyzes that artificial intelligence-based innovation engines are urgently needed to revive the local economy.

In particular, the government sees it needs to maximize the performance by linking and large-scale artificial intelligence policy and new deal projects that are being promoted by local governments. Also, it should upgrade the policy to solve the gap between the metropolitan area and other regions in artificial intelligence capabilities such as related companies in numbers 84%, sales (84%), R & D (59%).

Based on this recognition, the Ministry of Science and ICT has analyzed the main industries and field demand of the region, the limitations of the policy promotion by each local government, along 17 cities and provinces nationwide over the past year. As a result, the national strategy for spreading the achievements of artificial intelligence and a digital new deal to the whole region and the whole industry was announced.

Based on the government's strategy, local governments plan to carry out the spread of artificial intelligence through the process of finding specific tasks and securing budgets in accordance with the direction of the plan through cooperation by region.

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced the following plans to promote the 'K-AI New Deal' strategy.

The government has decided to promote the plan based on the vision of “artificial intelligence, into the region with the people”: ▷Innovation Key Base: Upgrade the Gwangju integrated complex as a national artificial intelligence innovation base▷Leading Project: Planning a large artificial intelligence project that reflects the strengths of each of the five regions. ▷Specialized Convergence: Promoting the expansion of artificial intelligence convergence to innovate major industries by region.

△ Leading business refers to a large artificial intelligence project that improves the artificial intelligence capacity of the region by the initiative of the local government, and creates the synergy effect of artificial intelligence in the whole country based on the linkage and cooperation of the ultra-wide area. △ Specialized convergence refers to a detailed unit task that supports the digital exchange of production and management such as manufacturing process and quality control by fusing data and artificial intelligence possessed by local companies.

It plans to link various artificial intelligence projects and tasks promoted in each region such as Honam, Chungcheong, Yeongnam, Gangwon, Jeju, and metropolitan areas, and to strengthen communication and cooperation among regions.

■ Promotion direction for regional spread

The direction of the spread of artificial intelligence in each region is as follows.

▷Honam Area

The Honam area, which has a data center and demonstration equipment, a convergence of three major industries (automobile, energy, and healthcare), human resource development, and start-up support (2020 ~ 2024, 393.9 billion won), has set up a leading business direction to be developed into a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence innovation base that supports the utilization and spread of artificial intelligence nationwide.

The leading projects in Honam area include the expansion of digital infrastructures such as data centers and demonstration equipment that reflect demand by station and leap forward in a one-stop development base of innovative artificial intelligence products and services by linking large-scale data such as data dams with the cloud.

The specialized convergence project will plan and develop AI convergence models with renewable energy such as wind power and solar power in Honam area, and agri-food manufacturing and processing.

▷Chungcheong area

Reflecting the strengths of research foundations such as research institute companies, 'large artificial intelligence convergence technology research and development were set as the direction of leading projects.

As a leading project in the Chungcheong region, it plans and promotes open research environments such as research on artificial intelligence convergence, sharing data held by research institutes, and activating collaboration among researchers.

Specialized convergence tasks will be discovered and promoted through cooperation with local governments to develop and demonstrate artificial intelligence for autonomous vehicles and analyze candidate materials for new drugs in the bio sector.

▷Yeongnam region

The Yeongnam region decided to promote a leading project to create an "ultra-wide logistics and manufacturing convergence cluster" by utilizing the characteristic of a manufacturing industry-intensive area that is advantageous in securing industrial data.

The leading business of Yeongnam area is to plan and implement the digital conversion support of the aged industrial complex and factory through cooperation with related ministries and artificial intelligence and intelligent robot application to the logistics process centering on the ultra-wide logistics base linking ships, aviation, and railway.

Specialized convergence projects include the development of new artificial intelligence services in urban safety transportation and disaster as well as the optimization of production management of manufacturing industries such as machinery and shipbuilding.

▷Kangwon area

Based on data strengths such as the transfer of public institutions in the private data center and healthcare sector, the Diffusion of Digital Innovation Services Based on Health and Medical Data has been set as the direction of leading projects.

Leading projects in Gangwon Province will include safe processing of data and creating an environment for utilization, and the development of innovative digital product services for vulnerable groups such as residents of remote areas.

Specialized convergence will promote artificial intelligence convergence in the production and management of eco-friendly energy such as digital tourism services using forest resources and liquid hydrogen.

▷Jeju Area

Based on the characteristics of an island area suitable for the demonstration environment of new technologies, "creating an artificial intelligence new service demonstration ecosystem" has been set as the direction of leading projects.

Leading projects in the Jeju area will include creating an empirical environment for artificial intelligence new technologies developed nationwide and developing digital public services to solve regional issues.

As a specialized convergence task, it has been decided to discover and promote artificial intelligence convergence tasks such as customized tourism services and growth management of monthly products.

▷Seoul metropolitan area

Based on the fact that artificial intelligence infrastructure and capabilities are relatively superior compared to other regions, the Seoul metropolitan area plans to support the improvement of the legal system so that it can be a private-led outpost for artificial intelligence globalization.

In particular, Gyeonggi and Incheon will plan and promote specialized convergence tasks that incorporate artificial intelligence into fields such as bio and media.

Meanwhile, based on this strategy, each local government decided to plan and implement on-site demand-oriented tasks through regional collaboration, and the Ministry of Science and ICT plans to support professional consulting, budget securing, and collaboration between tasks.

In this regard, local governments will plan one specific large-scale leading project for each region, including Honam, Chungcheong, Yeongnam, Gangwon, and Jeju, and will reflect the budget or conduct it in earnest after preliminary feasibility studies.

Specialized convergence, a detailed unit task, will select regional major industries with great ripple effects of artificial intelligence convergence and utilization, and expand support from data processing and learning to artificial intelligence development and utilization through the AI+X project in 2022.

Moreover, it plans to cultivate artificial intelligence convergence personnel specialized in local industries, focusing on artificial intelligence and SW education bases, and build and open large-scale data for artificial intelligence learning that reflects demand from the private, public, and local governments.

The government will also designate an "artificial intelligence leading business base district" in the region to secure the execution power of artificial intelligence leading projects, review requirements such as SW promotion facilities and ICT regulatory sandboxes to support tax and regulatory exceptions.

The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to cooperate with the fourth Industrial Revolution Committee to check the feasibility of discovering projects and tasks by region and to systematically support them to produce visible results.

Minister Lim Hye-sook of the Ministry of Science and ICT said, “Regions are the site for our citizens’ lives and the core for the spread of artificial intelligence and digital new deal. We will provide active support to secure this new growth engine and innovate the local economy.”

Reported by Smart City Today