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S.Korea to spend fiscal money on AI development after historic Go match

Xinhua, March 17, 2016 Adjust font size:

South Korea on Thursday announced a plan to spend hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars in fiscal money to develop artificial intelligence (AI) after a historic Go match between a human and an AI at the ancient Chinese board game.

South Korea's government will spend 1 trillion won (850 million U.S. dollars) in the next five years to develop the AI technology, while encouraging private companies to spend about 2.5 trillion won to help support the government's plan, according to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.

The plan came after the match of the century between South Korean Go grandmaster Lee Sedol and Google's Go-playing computer program AlphaGo increased awareness over the importance of the AI technology.

AlphaGo unexpectedly defeated Lee by 4-1 in the five-game match that ran from last Wednesday to Tuesday, drawing great attention from around the world.

South Korea will spend money in developing AI software as well as big data, Internet of Things and cloud computing.

The country's first research center dedicated only to the AI technology will be set up, with six major companies participating and the government supporting the establishment.

Those companies include Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, SK Telecom, KT, Naver and Hyundai Motor that would provide 3 billion won as seed money to set up the AI research center. Endit