[Interview] NAIRL POSTECH Team Lead Minsu Cho: “Korea Must Connect More Deeply with the Global AI Mainstream”

In a recent interview with Segye Ilbo, Minsu Cho, Mueunjae Chair Professor at POSTECH and Lead of the POSTECH team within the National AI Research Lab (NAIRL) consortium, shared his assessment of Korea’s current position in global AI research. While Korea has already become one of the world’s leading countries in terms of research output and innovation capacity, Professor Cho noted that its academic influence still remains below that of major European research powers such as France and Germany.

Professor Cho pointed out that Korea ranked fourth in the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Global Innovation Index 2025, but only sixteenth in the “citable documents h-index” category, which reflects academic impact. He argued that Korea’s key challenge lies in entering the global research mainstream more fully, emphasizing that Korean researchers need to engage more deliberately in international exchange and collaboration. He also suggested that overseas mobility should be viewed not simply as “brain drain,” but as a form of global advancement that can later contribute back to Korea.

The article also highlighted NAIRL’s role in supporting Korea’s connection to the global AI research community. Launched in July 2024, NAIRL brings together leading AI research teams from Yonsei University, Korea University, POSTECH, and KAIST, with support from IITP. As part of its efforts to expand Korea’s global research network, NAIRL will host the Global AI Frontiers Symposium in Seoul this July in conjunction with ICML 2026, bringing together leading scholars and experts from around the world.

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