Interview
[Interview] NAIRL Director: “Patient Capital and Top Talent Will Decide the AI Race”
Kee-Eung Kim, Director of National AI Research Lab and Professor at KAIST Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI, spoke with Seoul Economic Daily about the global AI race and Korea’s path forward. Director Kim emphasized that AI competition has become a contest between nations, and that Korea needs long-term “patient capital” and investment plans looking ten years ahead rather than one or two.
The interview also covered the diverging strategies of the U.S. and China, including China’s open-model push to set global standards, along with Korea’s four consecutive years of net AI talent outflow, the three mega projects in semiconductors, physical AI, and AI data centers, and directions for refining the AI Framework Act.
With this shared understanding, National AI Research Lab pursues long-term research on disruptive foundational technologies beyond short-term results, building global collaboration and serving as a hub for Korea’s AI research.