[ROUNDTABLE] Korea needs AI-ready ontology, should not end with developing models

Participants in The Korea Times roundtable urged Korea to expand its AI strategy beyond model development by building AI-ready ontologies, infrastructure and a supportive regulatory environment. Reform Party of Korea Rep. Lee Jun-seok proposed a purpose-built AI city in Saemangeum where technologies could be tested under relaxed regulations. Lim Jong-in argued that Korea should maintain domestic AI models for sensitive uses, including national security and cybersecurity. The participants also called for more practical testing opportunities and regulatory approaches that do not excessively restrict development.

Lee Jun-seok’s office converted data on 1.05 million Public Procurement Service products and 2.8 million procurement orders into ontologies for AI analysis.

The analysis identified signs of potential misuse involving 562.8 billion won in taxpayer money, including power strips priced at 60,000 won being supplied to public institutions for 200,000 won each.

Lee said work was underway to convert Korea’s laws, enforcement decrees and municipal ordinances into ontologies, and that more than 10 broken links between legal provisions had been identified.

Lee proposed an AI city in Saemangeum for about 500,000 residents who would voluntarily agree to live under significantly relaxed regulations.

Lim said Samsung Electronics uses its Gauss model to help prevent sensitive design assets and specifications from being exposed through external AI models.

Published Nov 5, 2026 7:00 am KST

Panelists agree on necessity of purpose-built AI test city

Reform Party of Korea Rep. Lee Jun-seok speaks during The Korea Times roundtable "Beyond US-China AI race: Korea's strategic edge" at the company's newsroom in Seoul, Oct. 28. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

Korea needs to diversify its current artificial intelligence (AI) strategy which is largely confined to developing advanced models, and expand its efforts to build AI-ready knowledge systems, infrastructure and a regulatory environment that supports practical applications, experts said during The Korea Times roundtable, “Beyond US-China AI race: Korea's strategic edge.”

The participants called for greater efforts to build ontologies — structured knowledge systems that organize vast amounts of government data, institutional knowledge and the relationships between them into forms AI systems can understand and use. They also agreed to the necessity of creating a sandbox area where AI-powered technologies could be tested and deployed under a more flexible regulatory framework.

Reform Party of Korea Rep. Lee Jun-seok stressed that the government’s AI strategy should focus on building national ontologies, not distributing free chatbots to the general public.

“If the government's goal was to drive the nation's AI transformation, a key policy should have been to require each ministry to develop its own ontology and submit a detailed implementation plan,” Lee said.

“Instead, the government allocated budgets without considering such a strategy, leaving officials unsure of what they should actually do. As a result, the only answer they can come up with is to buy more graphics processing units.”

Autonomous mobility robot SeRo, left, and GaRo, right, operate in an IT storage room at Naver's GAK Sejong data center in Sejong City in this undated handout photo. Courtesy of Naver Cloud

During last month’s National Assembly audit of the Public Procurement Service, Lee’s office converted raw data on 1.05 million products registered with the agency and 2.8 million procurement orders into ontologies and developed an AI program to analyze the data.

The analysis uncovered signs of potential misuse of 562.8 billion won ($418.4 million) in taxpayer money, including cases in which power strips normally priced at 60,000 won were supplied in large quantities to public institutions for 200,000 won each.

“We are now working on another project to convert all of Korea’s laws, enforcement decrees and municipal ordinances into ontologies, and have already identified more than 10 broken links between legal provisions, including cases where a law stipulates fines under provisions that no longer exist,” he said.

“It is important to deploy large numbers of software engineers and architects to government agencies and other specialized fields where they can work on building these ontologies.”

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyung-hoon speaks during a ceremony on the national artificial intelligence foundation model project at Coex in southern Seoul, Dec. 30, 2025. Newsis

Lim Jong-in, former presidential cybersecurity adviser and Soongsil University AI committee chair, noted that Korea should continue developing its own foundation models, even if they struggle to compete with leading models, because the country should not fully rely on foreign-developed AI models in sensitive areas such as national security, chip designing and cybersecurity.

“Samsung Electronics uses OpenAI's and Anthropic's Claude models for its operations, but there is a reason it is also using its own small AI model, Gauss, to prevent sensitive design assets and specifications from being exposed,” Lim said. “We need our own AI models for economic security, national security and the protection of personal information.”

He also noted that the adoption of global cybersecurity platforms such as Palantir and CrowdStrike is becoming increasingly common among large businesses, but many small and medium-sized enterprises and public institutions cannot afford to use them. He therefore stressed the need for Korea to continue developing affordable domestic AI models specialized in cybersecurity.

A satellite image of Saemangeum area / Courtesy of Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology

Purpose-built AI city

To enhance Korea’s competitiveness in the AI era, Lee proposed a purpose-built AI city in Saemangeum, a massive reclaimed area in North Jeolla Province. He said the city would serve as a large-scale test bed for about 500,000 residents who voluntarily agree to live under significantly relaxed regulations, eliminating the inefficiencies of trying to integrate AI technologies into existing communities.

“For example, using humanoid robots for food delivery would be highly inefficient,” Lee said. “If a robot tried to board a crowded elevator during lunchtime, people would probably push it out. But in an AI-native city, we could design buildings with small elevators dedicated to deliveries or incorporate drone landing pads from the beginning.”

Developing AI-powered autonomous vehicles and robots does not necessarily mean that every capability must be built into the systems from scratch. In the early stages of connected vehicle development, urban sensors can help enhance their capabilities, while factories operating large numbers of humanoid robots also need environments where sensors installed throughout the facilities can assist the robots' movements.

Lee said Korea lacks such infrastructure, citing an example from Dongtan, his constituency in Gyeonggi Province, where a Chinese autonomous vehicle company expressed interest in testing its technology there as a model city but faced restrictions that prevented autonomous driving in school zones.

Panelists take part in The Korea Times roundtable "Beyond US-China AI race: Korea's strategic edge" at the company's newsroom in Seoul, Oct. 28. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

Kim Sung-han, former national security adviser and Korea University professor emeritus, cited the Israeli city of Haifa as an example. Haifa is known for hosting the research and development centers of Apple, Google and Microsoft, as well as many leading AI hardware startups.

“News reports show that U.S. drone companies are increasingly flocking to Taiwan because it has fewer regulations than Korea,” Kim said. “We are missing out on tremendous opportunities. That's why we need a city like Haifa in Korea, a dedicated AI model city.”

Bone AI CEO Lee Do-kyung also agreed that the lack of regulatory visibility and opportunities to test robots and drones in real-world environments remain as major challenges.

Lim stressed that regulations should not excessively restrict technological development.

“In the 1990s, the U.S. adopted safe harbor policies that protected companies from liability if they took reasonable measures to prevent harm. This reduced uncertainty, attracted investment to the U.S. and helped fuel the internet boom,” Lim said.

“We are already seeing a surge in AI-driven cyberattacks, but we should not simply respond by imposing fines every time an incident occurs … We need to adapt our laws, institutions, policies and the way society thinks to the era of AI transformation.”

在《韩国时报》圆桌会议上，与会者敦促韩国拓展人工智能战略，超越模型开发，构建人工智能就绪的本体、基础设施和支持性的监管环境。韩国改革党议员李俊锡提议在新万金建设一座专门的人工智能城市，以便在较为宽松的监管环境下测试相关技术。林钟仁则认为，韩国应保留用于敏感用途（包括国家安全和网络安全）的国产人工智能模型。与会者还呼吁提供更多实际的测试机会，并采取不会过度限制人工智能发展的监管方式。

李俊锡的办公室将 105 万件公共采购服务产品和 280 万份采购订单的数据转换为本体，用于人工智能分析。

分析发现有迹象表明，纳税人的钱可能被滥用，金额高达 5628 亿韩元，其中包括以每条 20 万韩元的价格向公共机构供应单价为 6 万韩元的电源插座。

李表示，目前正在将韩国的法律、执行法令及市政条例转化为本体，并且已经发现法律条文之间存在 10 多个断裂的链接。

李提议在新万金建立一座人工智能城市，可容纳约 50 万居民，这些居民将自愿同意在大幅放宽的监管下生活。

林表示，三星电子利用其高斯模型来帮助防止敏感的设计资产和规范通过外部人工智能模型泄露。

发布于2026年11月5日 上午7:00（韩国标准时间）

与会专家一致认为有必要建设专门的人工智能测试城市

10月28日，韩国改革党议员李俊锡在首尔《韩国时报》新闻中心举行的题为“超越美中人工智能竞赛：韩国的战略优势”的圆桌会议上发表讲话。（《韩国时报》沈贤哲摄）

专家在《韩国时报》举办的题为“超越美中人工智能竞赛：韩国的战略优势”的圆桌会议上表示，韩国需要使其目前的人工智能（AI）战略多元化，该战略主要局限于开发先进模型，并需要扩大其在构建人工智能就绪的知识系统、基础设施和支持实际应用的监管环境方面的努力。

与会者呼吁加大力度构建本体——一种结构化的知识系统，用于将海量的政府数据、机构知识及其相互关系整理成人工智能系统能够理解和使用的形式。他们还一致认为，有必要创建一个沙盒区域，以便在更加灵活的监管框架下测试和部署人工智能技术。

韩国改革党议员李俊锡强调，政府的人工智能战略应该侧重于构建国家本体，而不是向公众免费分发聊天机器人。

李说：“如果政府的目标是推动国家人工智能转型，那么一项关键政策应该是要求每个部门开发自己的本体，并提交详细的实施计划。”

“然而，政府在分配预算时并未考虑这种策略，导致官员们不知所措。结果，他们唯一能想到的办法就是购买更多的图形处理器。”

这张未注明日期的照片显示，自主移动机器人SeRo（左）和GaRo（右）正在位于世宗市的Naver GAK世宗数据中心的IT存储室中工作。照片由Naver Cloud提供。

在上个月国会对公共采购服务进行审计期间，李的办公室将该机构注册的 105 万种产品和 280 万份采购订单的原始数据转换为本体，并开发了一个人工智能程序来分析这些数据。

分析发现，纳税人的钱款 5628 亿韩元（4.184 亿美元）可能存在滥用迹象，其中包括以每条 20 万韩元的价格向公共机构大量供应通常售价为 6 万韩元的电源插座。

他说：“我们目前正在开展另一个项目，将韩国所有的法律、执行法令和市政条例转换为本体，并且已经发现了 10 多个法律条文之间的断链，包括法律中规定的罚款条款已不再适用的情况。”

“向政府机构和其他专业领域派遣大量软件工程师和架构师非常重要，他们可以在那里从事构建这些本体的工作。”

2025年12月30日，韩国副总理兼科学技术信息通信部部长裴京勋在首尔南部COEX会展中心举行的国家人工智能基金会示范项目仪式上发表讲话。（Newsis）

韩国前总统网络安全顾问、崇实大学人工智能委员会主席林钟仁指出，韩国应该继续开发自己的基础模型，即使这些模型难以与领先模型竞争，因为韩国不应该在国家安全、芯片设计和网络安全等敏感领域完全依赖外国开发的人工智能模型。

林表示：“三星电子在其运营中使用了OpenAI和Anthropic的Claude模型，但它也使用自己的小型AI模型Gauss，这是有原因的，目的是为了防止敏感的设计资产和规范泄露。我们需要自己的AI模型来保障经济安全、国家安全和个人信息保护。”

他还指出，大型企业采用Palantir和CrowdStrike等全球网络安全平台的情况日益普遍，但许多中小企业和公共机构却无力承担这些平台的费用。因此，他强调韩国需要继续开发价格合理的、专门用于网络安全的本土人工智能模型。

新万金地区的卫星图像 / 图片由韩国科学技术院提供

专为人工智能而建的城市

为了提升韩国在人工智能时代的竞争力，李光耀提议在全罗北道新万金——一片巨大的填海造陆区——建造一座专门的人工智能城市。他表示，这座城市将作为大型试验场，容纳约50万居民，他们自愿同意在大幅放宽的监管环境下生活，从而消除将人工智能技术融入现有社区时可能出现的效率低下问题。

李说：“例如，用人形机器人送餐效率会非常低。如果机器人在午餐时间试图挤进拥挤的电梯，人们很可能会把它推出去。但在一个人工智能原生发展的城市里，我们可以设计带有专用于送餐的小型电梯的建筑，或者从一开始就配备无人机停机坪。”

开发人工智能驱动的自动驾驶汽车和机器人并不意味着所有功能都必须从零开始构建到系统中。在联网汽车开发的早期阶段，城市传感器可以帮助增强其功能；而运营大量人形机器人的工厂也需要安装传感器，以便在厂区各处辅助机器人的移动。

李表示，韩国缺乏此类基础设施，并以他在京畿道的选区东滩市为例，一家中国自动驾驶汽车公司表示有兴趣在那里测试其技术，将其作为示范城市，但却面临诸多限制，例如在学校区域内禁止自动驾驶。

10月28日，与会专家在首尔《韩国时报》新闻编辑室参加了题为“超越美中人工智能竞赛：韩国的战略优势”的圆桌会议。（《韩国时报》摄影师沈贤哲摄）

前国家安全顾问、韩国高丽大学名誉教授金成汉以以色列城市海法为例。海法以拥有苹果、谷歌和微软的研发中心以及众多领先的人工智能硬件初创公司而闻名。

金先生表示：“新闻报道显示，美国无人机公司正越来越多地涌向台湾，因为台湾的监管比韩国宽松。我们正在错失巨大的机遇。这就是为什么我们需要像韩国海法那样的城市，一个专门的人工智能示范城市。”

Bone AI 首席执行官李道京也认同，缺乏监管透明度和在真实环境中测试机器人和无人机的机会仍然是主要挑战。

林强调，法规不应过度限制技术发展。

林先生表示：“上世纪90年代，美国采取了安全港政策，保护那些采取合理措施防止损害的公司免于承担责任。这降低了不确定性，吸引了投资进入美国，并推动了互联网的蓬勃发展。”

“我们已经看到人工智能驱动的网络攻击激增，但我们不应该仅仅在每次发生此类事件时都处以罚款……我们需要调整我们的法律、制度、政策以及社会思维方式，以适应人工智能变革的时代。”