(Bloomberg) -- South Korea must continue advancing artificial intelligence without or delay, its deputy prime minister said on Wednesday, striking an unequivocal tone in a growing global debate about the pace of development for the technology.
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Home to memory-chip linchpins Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc., South Korea is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI data center boom that's triggered overwhelming demand for semiconductors and hardware made in the country. But even so, the nation of 52 million is not in a position to throttle down its progress along the lines proposed by the bosses of AI model developers Anthropic PBC and OpenAI in the US.
"From South Korea's perspective, I believe one thing is clear: we cannot afford to slow down AI development now," Kyunghoon Bae, who is the country's minister of science and ICT as well as deputy PM, wrote on X. "There is a fundamental difference between countries that are already ahead choosing to slow down and a country that is still catching up while simultaneously trying to create new markets."
Bae's stance contrasts with Anthropic Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei's call to slow frontier AI development and strengthen independent oversight, and is closer to the views espoused by Meta Platforms Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Nvidia Corp. CEO Jensen Huang. The more bullish AI leaders argue the technology can continue advancing with prudent measures — and no additional laws or regulations — to ensure the work is done responsibly and safely. Bae said South Korea should accelerate AI research and adoption while strengthening safeguards against deepfakes, cyber threats and privacy risks.
"I will also share with the public the next phase of our independent AI foundation model initiative soon, which we have been considering carefully," Bae added. "We will not turn back South Korea's AI clock. We will move faster, but we will also move more safely."
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