Korea to mount challenge in AI industry

Korea has announced plans to invest roughly 100 billion won (approximately 87.2 million) to foster the development of supercomputers in the country, according to the Korea Times. Following the 5-game Go match between Google's AlphaGo programme and Go World Champion Lee Se-dol, there has been a rise in interest in AI within the country. The attention has seemingly prompted the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning to invest 10 billion won annually for the next 10 years to boost the growth of artificial intelligence, big data, the Internet-of-Things technologies and other emerging industries through supercomputers. Alongside this investment, the government has also committed to bolster its cloud computing credentials, both domestically and internationally. At a recent cloud conference, the ministry announced plans to increase the adoption of cloud computing from 6.4% to 13% over the next 12 months, as well as targeting international growth for Korean cloud computing companies.