South Korea's AI: No models, talent outflow... Can we be confident about the future? - South Korean media

Although South Korea has obtained many patents in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), there are criticisms abroad that the country has no track record in model development and is losing talent.
The report is titled "AI Index 2024" and was published by the Human-Centered AI Institute (HAI) at the University of South Korea. It includes the shocking observation that AI will be at the heart of the fourth industry, which will determine the future competitiveness of nations.
According to the HAI, South Korea will have 10.26 AI-related patents per 100,000 people as of 2022, the highest number among all countries surveyed. Luxembourg, in second place, has 8.7
This is 1.5 more than 3, and is a larger lead than the 4.23 in the United States, which is in third place, and the 2.53 in Japan, which is in fourth place.
The results are humiliating when compared to the numbers of developments in other major countries, such as the United States with 109, China with 20, and France with eight. The South Korean government immediately refuted this.
The Ministry of Information and Communications said that HAI itself had mentioned the possibility that model development had been under-reported in some countries, such as South Korea and China, and that Naver's "Hyper Clover X" and Samsung Electronics' "
Gaussian" as an example of a model developed in Korea. However, it should not be overlooked that HAI has its own evaluation criteria.
An even more serious problem is talent outflow. According to HAI, the AI talent mobility index per 10,000 people registered on LinkedIn is
Last year, South Korea recorded a minus 0.3, meaning that there were more people leaving the country than entering the country. In 2020, it was a positive 0.3, but in three years, it has been a big step forward.
Looking at other countries, Luxembourg is at 3.67, the United Arab Emirates at 1.48, the United States at 0.4, India at -0.76 and Israel at -0.57.
With only about 2,500 AI talent in Korea, just 0.5% of the world's total, and with these talent leaving for other countries, it is difficult to foresee a bright future.
The Korean government should take HAI's criticism seriously and take measures to strengthen its AI competitiveness. Since AI competitiveness ultimately depends on human resources, the first priority is to
We must also focus on securing domestic talent and attracting talent from overseas. We must also strengthen AI-related education and training at universities and in the industry.