The ongoing race to develop artificial intelligence technology is often likened to the launch of the Sputnik spacecraft in 1957,... and the resulting space race between global superpowers.
AI is expected to spur not only technological progress, but also economic and military superiority.
But to harness this potential, countries and firms around the world must acquire massive amounts of data.
Oh Soo-young has more.
Quantity counts as much as quality when it comes to the global race for artificial intelligence.
Countries around the world,... including South Korea, the United States and China,... have been racing in an unspoken competition to become the world leader in AI technology.
As deep learning and computing power continue to make huge leaps,... AI is expected to further boost competitiveness and productivity in almost every sector of society,... from the economy to healthcare, security, law, transportation, and even technology itself.
But to develop optimized solutions,... what's crucial is data.

"One of the things that's the lifeblood that really powers AI is the data that is required. Now this data is inside the organization. It's outside of the organization. But until they have control over that data they can bring it together in a trusted, governed way and provide that to their AI models. This is what's fundamental for any company to move along this journey to AI."

Countries with relatively loose regulations such as the United States allow businesses wider access to personal information and data.
However, in Korea where there are stricter standards, firms are limited from collecting information that could lead to innovation and vastly improve their services.

"There are three decisive factors: the algorithm itself, computing power to process data quickly and then there's data. These three elements must create synergy for an AI business or solution to flourish. But the regulatory landscape in Korea currently gives global firms an unfair advantage as they are not subject to the same laws that require user consent on data collection."

That has been a Catch-22 situation for Korea.
Nurturing data-based industries,... while still protecting individuals' rights to privacy.

"So individuals feel that their privacy can be compromised by the government and companies... So for these type of people who believe that their privacy is compromised, we need to understand them and we need to try to ensure that their personal rights or their individual value can be protected... We should not neglect the right for them to be ignored, to be forgotten..."

Many experts have called for regulatory reform as well as innovation in encryption technology,... in order to overcome the data dilemma and increase Korea's AI capabilities.
At the moment, Korea is considered roughly two years behind the United States in AI technology.
Oh Soo-young, Arirang News.