'Consensus' for AI age

South Korea's government under President Lee Jae Myung is pursuing ambitious AI megaprojects including semiconductor and data center hubs, aiming to become a top AI powerhouse. However, global experts including Nobel laureates warn that AI could transform the economy more radically than the Industrial Revolution within a decade, urging caution alongside the country's optimism.

Artificial intelligence AI -led growth and transformation is inevitably part of the future. Korea is one of the leading movers in AI, with a distinctive optimism and state-backed initiatives that draw from the country’s past industrialization successes. The Lee Jae Myung administration’s goal of becoming a top AI powerhouse, pursuing three megaprojects that include building semiconductors and data center hubs, reflects its enthusiasm. However, the warning messages coming from Nobel laureates, prominent economists and AI researchers arrive at an opportune time for us to realistically factor in the future peaks and valleys of Korea’s AI growth. In a statement titled “We Must Act Now,” experts from across the world stressed AI’s ability to become radically more powerful over the next 10 years. They also pointed to the unprecedented transformation the technology can bring about in our economy, a change they predict to be more transformative than the Industrial Revolution but unfolding over a vastly shorter time frame. While they said this could deliver opportunities, such as m