South Korea Rejects AI Slowdown, Pledges to Continue Development Pace

South Korea will not reduce the speed of its artificial intelligence development, asserting that it cannot afford to fall behind in the global technology race. The statement came from Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyung-hoon in a Facebook post on Wednesday.

Government Pledges Uninterrupted AI Push

Bae emphasized that South Korea's position as a nation working to catch up in the AI sector necessitates a different strategy than that of established leaders. "From South Korea’s perspective, one thing is clear: we do not have the luxury of slowing down our AI development right now," Bae wrote, according to a translation of the post.

He stressed that "speed accountability" is more critical than "speed control" for the country. To that end, the government will move forward with several key projects without interruption, including:

• Implementation of the AI Basic Act
• Development of an independent foundation model
• The Frontier AI model initiative

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Context of Global AI Debate

Bae's comments place South Korea in opposition to a faction of prominent technology executives who have called for a pause in advanced AI development. Leaders such as OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, and xAI’s Elon Musk have previously warned about the potential threats the technology could pose to humanity.

However, South Korea's stance aligns more closely with other industry figures, including Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg. This group has rejected calls for a slowdown, arguing instead for continued innovation coupled with increased responsibility from the labs developing frontier AI models. The Deputy Prime Minister's declaration signals the nation's intent to prioritize competitiveness and market creation in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.