AI Chief Secretary Ha Jung-woo stresses in his book, "An independent AI department with its own budget must be established"

Publication of 'AI War 2.0'

What is the AI strategy diagnosed by the new government's AI Chief Secretary

Ha Jung-woo, who was selected as the first Presidential Secretary for AI Future Planning in the Lee Jae-myung administration, recently emphasized in his newly released book 'AI War 2.0' that "a dedicated AI department, such as the Ministry of AI·Digital Innovation, must be established" and that "the AI-specialized department should function like a CAIO organization, overseeing and coordinating each ministry’s AI adoption and implementation." 'AI War 2.0' is a book co-authored by Ha when he was Head of the AI Innovation Center at Naver Cloud, together with Han Sang-gi, CEO of TechFrontier, and it was published on the 30th of last month after he was appointed Presidential Secretary.

In his book, he pointed out, "The biggest issue regarding AI governance is that there isn’t a clear leader or organization with comprehensive authority—ranging from planning to execution and budget planning—to oversee and drive the national AI strategy." He went on to say, "It’s clear that it’s insufficient to merely create an AI-related division under the Ministry of Science and ICT," adding, "Rather than simply naming the department as Ministry of AI, it is preferable to adopt a more inclusive and strategic name, such as 'Ministry of AI·Digital Innovation.'"

He also stated that the newly established department must have independent planning and budget execution authority to have real significance. He commented, "Even if the Ministry of Science and ICT is promoted to a vice prime minister level, it means nothing without real authority. What if a vice minister tells another minister, 'This is what you should do'? It just won’t work. An organization without practical policy coordination and budget planning authority cannot really function."

Regarding the general assessment that CAIO is usually operated under the Presidential Office, he said, "Usually, this role is held by a Chief Secretary in the Presidential Office or under the Prime Minister. The newly formed department needs a counterpart within the Presidential Office for close communication, and AI policy should ideally be handled at a high-ranking level." He added, "Secretaries in the Presidential Office are only assistants, so there must be a separate entity that takes real responsibility and implements policy at the front line."

In his book, Ha suggested building an 'AI Data Center' to secure 500,000 state-of-the-art AI semiconductors by 2030, proposing a public-private partnership model in which operations are handled by competent private companies. He also considered the establishment of a 'National Superintelligence Research Institute', allowing the top AI experts to focus solely on AGI research, as essential. For strengthening national defense AI capabilities, he called for the introduction of an 'AI Specialist Officer System', and for allocating 20% of the national defense R&D budget as a separate 'National Defense AI Fund.'

Reporter Ko Eun-yi koko@hankyung.com