At the CLEVI booth, a participating company at the 1st Industrial AI EXPO held at COEX Magok in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, last September, a representative is demonstrating the operation of a robot equipped with Physical AI. /Newsis
[Metro Newspaper] With ‘Physical AI’ being identified as the next step in the era of generative artificial intelligence (AI), all capabilities—from the government and major IT companies such as Naver to academia, including Seoul National University—are being focused on it.
According to coverage by <Metro Economic Newspaper> on the 12th, Physical AI refers to autonomous systems that directly apply AI to the physical world, leading to ‘perception→understanding→action’. While conventional AI relies on digital inputs and outputs such as text and images, Physical AI detects the actual physical environment through cameras, sensors and actuators, responding in real time or performing tasks.
Physical AI is attracting attention because of the recognition that changes in real-world spaces, such as robotics, autonomous vehicles and smart logistics, cannot be achieved through AI’s ‘software dimension’ alone. Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, also recently emphasised that “AI technology is now moving beyond the software level and entering a ‘Physical AI moment’ in which it directly interacts with the physical world.”
As Physical AI emerges as the next-generation technology of the AI era, the government has also adopted it as a key national strategy and begun injecting a large-scale budget.
To advance as one of the ‘world’s three leading AI nations’, the government has allocated 10.1 trillion won, more than three times this year’s 3.3 trillion won. To this end, it plans to invest approximately 6 trillion won over the next five years in major industrial sectors such as robotics, automobiles and shipbuilding. In addition to the 260,000 NVIDIA GPUs secured at the recent South Korea–US summit, the government also announced that it would purchase an additional 15,000 high-performance GPUs, securing a total of 35,000 units ahead of schedule.
In his government policy speech at the National Assembly on the 4th, President Lee Jae Myung described next year’s budget proposal as “the Republic of Korea’s first budget proposal to open the AI era” and said, “To become a leading nation in Physical AI, we will leverage our outstanding domestic manufacturing capabilities and focus investment on key projects.” In line with these government efforts, domestic IT companies are also making aggressive investments to gain an early foothold in the Physical AI market.
Naver, which achieved quarterly revenue of over 3 trillion won for the first time, announced that it would strengthen its competitiveness in physical AI technology. Choi Soo-yeon, CEO of Naver, said at the third-quarter earnings announcement on the 5th, "We are confident that our physical AI technology is at the highest global level," and stated that the company would become a leader in the operating system (OS) and control platform sectors, which account for approximately 39% of the global robotics market.
To achieve this, Naver expects that an investment of over 1 trillion won in GPUs alone will be required next year. Its core technologies are the robot cloud 'ARC' and the ultra-precise 3D digital twin 'ALIKE'.
CEO Choi emphasised, "'ARC' is a standard OS platform that integrates and manages various robots, aiming to play the role of 'Windows' or 'Android' in the robotics industry," adding, "Through this technology, we will secure a new growth engine."
Academic efforts to support physical AI innovation are also accelerating. Seoul National University will officially launch the 'Seoul National University Robotics Institute (SNU RI)', a research institution specialising in physical AI, next month to secure next-generation AI talent. SNU RI will be led by prominent figures in the global robotics academic community, including Professor Jongwoo Park (former president of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society) and Professor Kyujin Cho (incoming president of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society).
The biggest goal is to retain outstanding talent that is being drawn overseas. Professor Cho emphasised, "We need to establish a research institute that goes beyond simple research and achieves technology demonstration or commercialisation outcomes that attract the attention of people around the world." To this end, SNU RI is set to operate as an 'open hub' where academia and industry join forces, with AI startup representatives and external experts mentoring students and helping them launch businesses.
Ha Jung-woo, Senior Secretary for AI and Future Planning at the Office of the President, said, "To successfully develop the new field known as physical AI, we need not only GPUs, data and algorithms, but also manufacturing plants, industrial environments and the physical world," adding, "Korea has both manufacturing capabilities and software expertise, providing the foundation to create a new AI environment."
Seohyun Kim, Reporter, Metro Seoul Newspaper [email protected]
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Source: Metro Seoul Newspaper (Reporter Seohyun Kim) | https://www.metroseoul.co.kr/article/20251112500345