Kim Yong-beom, the Blue House Policy Chief, stated that the artificial intelligence (AI) production system requires a physical foundation as massive as, or sometimes even greater than, traditional heavy industries, and argued that a new role for the state is necessary to support this.

In a post on his Facebook page, Kim wrote, "The task of the state in the AI era is to organize the entire network of relationships through which production capacity is created."

He continued, "Without electricity, GPUs cannot function, and without power grids and water supply, data centers and semiconductor factories cannot operate," adding, "The core conditions required for production are becoming more dependent on infrastructure and networks built by society as a whole rather than within individual companies."

Kim also wrote, "If society provides large-scale infrastructure and institutional foundations, and companies secure new production capacity based on them, we can design a system where a portion of those achievements leads to the formation of production capacity for the next generation," describing this as a "mechanism for the public and businesses to accumulate the fruits of the AI era together."

This appears to be a call for establishing a system where massive profits generated from the semiconductor boom—including through the government's newly created Future Response Fund—are reinvested in future-oriented areas such as education, training, infrastructure, and advanced technology research and development.

Kim also diagnosed that "growth in the AI era is highly likely to take a 'K-shaped' (extreme polarization) form," noting that "entry-level jobs are decreasing, the value of existing skills is weakening, and small and medium-sized enterprises and local economies that cannot access new means of production face a growing risk of remaining at the bottom of the growth curve."

He argued that the government must provide the public with new AI-centered job training opportunities and "first career" experiences, and emphasized the need for financial support for living expenses, stating, "If a minimum standard of living is not maintained, the transition itself is impossible."

(Photo: Yonhap News)