South Korea will overhaul how it evaluates national research and development projects to focus on challenge-driven outcomes and will fully adopt the Moving Target system from next year, allowing researchers to change targets during projects. The Ministry of Science and ICT said it notified related ministries of its 2026 administrative reform plan. The government will create a new evaluation system by October, ease fund-use rules, add a personal cap for research allowances, standardise settlement criteria and strengthen oversight of overseas spending.

Big tech companies are moving faster into so-called physical AI that applies AI in the real world, including robots, cars and drones, as they seek to secure an early lead in a market seen as smaller than chatbots for now but with high potential. Nvidia, AWS, SoftBank, Anthropic and Xpeng are among those expanding initiatives. South Korean companies and institutions are also stepping up projects, funding and partnerships, even as concerns persist about data shortages and reliability.