Signal Korea trails AI leaders in technology, top researchers, talent flows and computing capacity

Summary

According to the Institute for Information and Communications Technology Planning and Evaluation, Korea's AI technology lagged the US by 1.3 years in 2024, against 0.9 years for China and 1.0 year for Europe. The labour ministry's outlook for 2023 to 2027 projects a shortage of 17,000 advanced AI workers alongside a surplus of 4,000 at beginner and intermediate levels. MacroPolo data for 2022 put Korea's share of the world's top 20 percent AI researchers at 2 percent, compared with 47 percent for China and 18 percent for the US. Stanford HAI figures show a net outflow of AI talent from Korea at 0.36 per 10,000 people, while the UK, US and Germany record net inflows. The national AI committee counted about 2,000 H100 units across Korea in 2023, compared with roughly 150,000 each at Meta and Microsoft.