Aju Business Daily

 
SEOUL -- The artificial intelligence, robot and autonomous technology wing of Naver, South Korea's top web portal, envisaged an artificial intelligence research belt covering South Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia and France to provide a place for limitless research activities to domestic researchers in the face of U.S. and Chinese technology supremacy.

"Through the global AI research belt created by Naver, Korean researchers will freely cross the border for their endless technological research," Naver Labs head Seok Sang-ok said in a keynote speech Monday at DEVIEW 2019, a tech conference in Seoul that brings together local and foreign software developers and tech industry officials.

Naver Labs has a French subsidiary that researches computer vision, natural language processing and machine learning. It has been involved in completing a high-precision layout map of all major roads in Seoul. A three-dimensional map with precise information about traffic facilities is vital for creating an environment in which self-driving cars can safely roam about. Naver is upgrading its location measurement technology by combining a high-precision map and various sensors.

"The core of this belt lies in technical exchanges across borders," Seok said. "In the long term, we will draw a blueprint for this research belt to emerge as a new global trend comparable to the tremendous technological prowess of the U.S. and China."

"We plan to make bold investments to create a new global trend centered on South Korea that will counter U.S. and Chinese AI technology supremacy," Seok said. "We have invested in nurturing various human resources, but this time the global AI research belt will be another big inflection point beyond this."