Op-Ed
[Op-Ed] The Path to Becoming a Top-Three AI Nation Lies in a National AI Research System
Wonki Min, Chairman of NAIRL’s Advisory Council, has laid out two conditions for Korea to become a top-three AI nation. The first is an environment where the world’s best talent wants to conduct research: compelling research problems, engagement with leading scholars, sufficient computing resources and data, and the stability to focus on long-term inquiry. The second is a national AI research system that connects research to industry, in which technologies developed at universities and research institutes flow into products and services, and industrial demand in turn shapes research agendas.
Chairman Min pointed to the Global AI Frontiers Symposium 2026, held on July 3, as evidence of this shift, noting that the central question in AI research is moving from how intelligent AI has become to how it is reshaping the real world. NAIRL, he explained, is an attempt to realize both conditions on a single platform. Growing it into a global AI research hub, he emphasized, will require consistent and sustained government support.
This column is the first installment of NAIRL’s biweekly series “AI Talent Powerhouse,” published in ZDNet Korea, which examines the direction of Korea’s AI research ecosystem.
The full column is available at the link below.