Science ministry convenes experts on physical AI push

The science ministry said Thursday it convened experts from industry and academia at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Seoul to discuss the direction of its policy to accelerate South Korea's physical AI industry.

The meeting brought together specialists in physical AI models, data and robots to debate how early-stage physical AI and AI robots should be put to use.

The push sits inside the government's three mega-projects for national development. Since this year the ministry has been running programs to internalize core physical AI technologies, including world models and foundation models. "To cultivate the domestic physical AI ecosystem from its roots, it is important to localize the physical AI full stack, including semiconductors, models, data and robots, and for that, actively using products made by domestic companies is important for growing the corporate ecosystem," the ministry said.

From next year it plans to build a physical AI training center to support the production and use of high-quality physical AI data. The ministry will also run a demonstration project with the Korea Post to test how the technology performs in real field settings.

In carrying out the programs, the ministry said it will draw heavily on the results of government research and development projects and on products developed and produced by Korean companies.

"We will continue to communicate actively with various experts in the field so that we can establish policy together," the ministry said.