South Korea\'s presidential office is left without an AI future planning secretary after former secretary Ha Jung-woo moved into politics, drawing attention to the direction of the national AI strategy. Some in the industry warn that policy continuity could be affected for key initiatives tied to the government\'s goal of becoming one of the world\'s top three AI powers. Attention is also on how quickly a successor can be found and on the role of the Ministry of Science and ICT in implementation.

Samsung SDS on Wednesday reported preliminary first-quarter revenue of 3.35 trillion won and operating profit of 78.3 billion won. Revenue fell 3.9 percent from a year earlier, while profit slid 70.8 percent after it booked a 112.0 billion won retirement benefit provision following a change in severance pay calculation standards. Cloud revenue rose 5.8 percent to 690.9 billion won, becoming the largest share within IT services.