Science ministry opens Physical AI Tech Week at Coex

The science ministry said Monday it will open Physical AI Tech Week on Oct. 13, a two-day gathering at Coex in Seoul that brings government, industry and research together around the Physical AI Alliance, with more than 500 people expected to attend.

The event is hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT and organised by the alliance and the National IT Industry Promotion Agency. Its first day, the Physical AI Alliance Day, shares the government's 2027 direction for physical AI and is meant to strengthen cooperation that carries technology development through demonstration and commercialisation.

Morning sessions on Oct. 13 feature Krafton chief AI officer Lee Kang-wook, Nvidia Korea chief executive Jung So-young and Intel vice president John Healy on international trends in social-intelligence robots and industrial digitalisation. A cross-ministry briefing later that day, with the SMEs, agriculture and oceans ministries taking part, covers physical AI projects in manufacturing, logistics, farming and ports, alongside the National Growth Fund and the World IT Show 2027.

The second day, Physical AI Tech Day, runs under the slogan "Intelligence into Action" and opens with keynote lectures from Friendly AI chief executive Byeon Byeong-gon, MIT's Kim Sang-bae and GIST's Lee Gyu-bin on AI inference infrastructure, physical-intelligence architecture and robot foundation models. Afternoon sessions cover AI factories, digital twins, standardisation, data and control, robotic collaborative intelligence and agentic AI.

A technology exhibition runs throughout both days, with companies and research institutes including Neuromeka, Nota AI, Realworld, Maum AI, OnePredict, KT and LG CNS showing AI semiconductors, data, manufacturing AI and robots, from data-centre and edge NPUs to humanoid robots and micro edge servers.

A public talk concert on the afternoon of Oct. 14, chaired by chemist and science-fiction author Kwak Jae-sik, will have researchers answer questions from about 70 students, business people and researchers about what physical AI will change in industry and daily life.

"We hope this Physical AI Tech Week becomes a place to share technology and industry trends in physical AI and to create new cooperation opportunities between the government, companies and research institutes," a science ministry official said.