South Korea aims for AI superpower status with 'San Francisco AI Declaration'

President Lee Jae-myung unveiled the 'San Francisco AI Declaration' during the 'San Francisco AI Summit,' articulating South Korea's vision to become a global leader in the artificial intelligence era. The ambitious plan aims to position the nation as a central hub for AI production and application by integrating its strengths in semiconductors, AI data centers, and physical AI technologies.

The summit saw the participation of prominent figures from both South Korean conglomerates and leading U.S. tech giants. Attendees included Lee Jae-yong of Samsung Electronics, Chey Tae-won of SK Group, Chung Euisun of Hyundai Motor Group, and Lee Hae-jin of Naver, alongside NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. This unprecedented gathering of top executives from global AI leaders underscored South Korea's rising influence in the international AI ecosystem. The participating companies committed to a massive collaboration worth approximately $950 billion across areas like memory, data centers, and autonomous driving.

South Korea already holds a significant position in the global AI landscape, producing 80% of the High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) crucial for AI accelerators and ranking third worldwide in AI model development. The country also exhibits strong AI demand, with a generative AI usage rate of 37%, surpassing nations like the U.S., Germany, and Japan.

However, achieving the goal of becoming an 'AI superpower' requires addressing several critical challenges. South Korea must secure AI sovereignty through the successful development of its own AI models and foundational semiconductor technologies. Furthermore, securing the necessary power and water resources for semiconductor factories and data centers will necessitate conflict resolution among stakeholders. The government must also confront the growing societal and economic side effects of AI proliferation, such as concerns about job displacement and the potential for increased polarization as the benefits of AI development are concentrated among a few corporations and social strata. Failure to proactively address these issues could lead to significant backlash against the government's vision for national advancement through AI.

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We will foster Korea into a global production and utilization base for artificial intelligence by connecting semiconductors, artificial intelligence data centers, and physical artificial intelligence.