The Ministry of Science and ICT said it held a "Defense AX policy meeting" on Friday with the Ministry of National Defense and the National AI Strategy Committee.

The meeting was attended by Ryu Je-myung (류제명), second vice minister of science and ICT, Lee Doo-hee (이두희), vice minister of national defense, and Lim Moon-young (임문영), vice chair of the National AI Strategy Committee, as well as other officials including Shim Seung-bae (심승배), head of the committee’s defense and security subcommittee. They discussed policy directions to push ahead with defense AX at speed.

Participants agreed that expanding AX across the defense sector is essential from the perspective of national security. They also shared the view that defense AX is a key task that can raise both defense competitiveness and national AI competitiveness. They agreed to deepen policy cooperation in areas including developing defense AI models based on AI foundation models, support such as computing infrastructure for defense AX, and sharing leading cases among related agencies.

The government plans to provide open data in the defense sector in the first quarter of this year to an elite team on the "homegrown AI foundation model" project. It aims to accelerate advancement of the homegrown AI model and increase its potential for use in the defense sector. Over the medium to long term, it plans to strengthen policy cooperation to develop defense-specialized AI models based on the homegrown AI foundation model.

Ryu said, "When world-class AI technology capabilities and the execution capacity to expand them into various areas such as defense, public and private sectors come together, South Korea can make a true leap into becoming an AI powerhouse." He added, "We will proactively and actively support innovation in defense AX."

Lee said, "We are 추진하고 있다" a "Defense AX," or a "major defense AI transformation," that gradually introduces AI across the defense sector. He stressed that defense AX will ultimately contribute to national AI development.

Lim said defense AX is a key issue in the draft South Korean artificial intelligence action plan currently being prepared. He said he will actively back 추진 of defense AX through policy coordination and cooperation at the whole-of-government level.

The Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of National Defense and the National AI Strategy Committee also agreed to set up regular consultation channels and continue discussions from working-level to senior-level.