South Korea Vows Unstoppable AI Push Despite Global Calls to Slow Pace

SEOUL — South Korea must forge ahead with artificial intelligence development without hesitation or delay, the country’s deputy prime minister declared on Wednesday, taking a decisive stand in the widening international debate over AI governance and safety regulations.

As home to memory-chip powerhouses Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc., South Korea stands as a major supplier for the global AI data center expansion. However, top officials emphasize that the nation cannot afford to pause its progress, even as prominent tech leaders in the United States advocate for tighter controls on frontier models.

'We Cannot Afford to Slow Down'

Kyunghoon Bae, South Korea's Minister of Science and ICT who also serves as deputy prime minister, outlined the government's position in a statement on X, addressing the stark contrast between established AI leaders and nations pursuing market growth.

"From South Korea's perspective, I believe one thing is clear: we cannot afford to slow down AI development now," Bae wrote. "There is a fundamental difference between countries that are already ahead choosing to slow down and a country that is still catching up while simultaneously trying to create new markets."

  GLOBAL AI STRATEGY PERSPECTIVES PAUSE & REGULATE ──► Anthropic (Dario Amodei) & OpenAI Leadership · Propose independent oversight and throttled training FULL ACCELERATION ──► South Korea, Meta (Mark Zuckerberg) & Nvidia (Jensen Huang) · Focus on fast-tracked innovation alongside targeted security safeguards

Diverging Paths on AI Governance

Bae’s comments directly counter calls from figures like Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who has urged industry players to slow frontier AI development to implement independent safety oversight. Instead, South Korea's stance aligns more closely with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who advocate for continuous innovation backed by prudent, targeted measures rather than restrictive regulations.

Bae noted that South Korea intends to fast-track its national AI research while deploying specific guardrails to tackle deepfakes, cybersecurity threats, and data privacy risks.

"I will also share with the public the next phase of our independent AI foundation model initiative soon, which we have been considering carefully," Bae added. "We will not turn back South Korea's AI clock. We will move faster, but we will also move more safely."

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