GS' Huh Tae-soo named founding chair of FKI's AI innovation committee
GS Group announced Tuesday that its Chair Huh Tae-soo has been appointed as the founding chair of the Artificial Intelligence Innovation Committee under the Federation of Korean Industrie, one of the largest business groups here.
Since assuming the chair position of GS Group in 2020, Huh has been a strong advocate for AI-driven innovation and digital transformation, integrating AI into GS's business operations.
The FKI said his leadership in fostering AI adoption has positioned him as the ideal candidate to lead balanced industrial growth.
The committee, structured into five divisions -- policy-making, technology development and expansion, human capital and infrastructure, governance and future growth -- will focus on fostering AI innovation and industry-wide adoption in the digital era.
During Huh's opening remarks upon the committee launch, he emphasized the need for proactive AI policies and stronger industry collaboration, stating, "Korea's AI industry is still in its infancy, despite ongoing discussions on the Basic Act on AI and other legislative initiatives."
"To address this, we will not only spearhead AI policy discussions but also cultivate an AI-friendly business environment to enhance overall competitiveness."
spark@heraldcorp.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Korea Herald
a day ago
- Korea Herald
TSMC flags delays in Japan expansion while US plans advance
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Chief Executive Officer C. C. Wei blamed worsening traffic snarls for delays in expanding its base in southwestern Japan, even while a parallel US effort races ahead. Wei reaffirmed a commitment to spend another $100 billion ramping up manufacturing in Arizona over the next half-decade, while saying a plan to build a second plant in Japan was experiencing slight delays. He stressed productive discussions with Donald Trump earlier this year, even after telling the US president it will be 'very, very difficult' to complete such a big buildout in five years because of a shortage of skilled labor. Trump was 'warm' during their exchange, Wei said. The twin projects embody TSMC's impetus to produce abroad as geopolitical tensions rise and demand grows for Nvidia Corp. chips essential for developing AI. TSMC has long operated mostly from its home turf of Taiwan but built a plant in Japan after securing a raft of commitments and incentives from Tokyo. It then announced plans to dramatically increase its US investment days after Trump took office. TSMC's first Japan factory, which began operating last year, has been a boon to the local economy. But it's also overwhelming the community's farm-town infrastructure, causing shortages in housing and services and stretching commute times. 'We have created too big an impact on the local traffic. I have experienced that in person. For what used to take a 10-15 min drive, it now takes almost an hour,' the CEO told reporters after hosting a shareholders' meeting in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on Tuesday. 'We told the Japanese government we'll delay the construction until the traffic improves. They said they'll make improvements as soon as possible.' Wei did not specify the length of the delay, which he characterized as minor. TSMC said in an emailed statement late Tuesday that it is starting construction of the second plant within this year, reiterating a revised schedule offered by Wei during an earnings conference in April. Construction was originally slated to start by December last year. The world's largest contract chipmaker sits at the heart of the global technology supply chain, producing cutting-edge chips for Apple Inc.'s iPhones and Nvidia's AI servers. Governments from Washington to Brussels have for years courted the company, particularly after shortages of certain types of semiconductors during the pandemic halted production of cars, smartphones, power tools, home appliances and other electronics. TSMC's plan to build a second factory in Kumamoto Prefecture is key to Japan's ambitions to regain leadership in semiconductors and attract engineers to an aging country. The local community has not been able to fully absorb the sudden influx of workers from TSMC's first plant, however, even as the chipmaker's plans in the US lowers the urgency of production in Japan. Hurrying to build a second plant will make traffic conditions 'very unpleasant,' Wei said. 'This will become negative for the area, for the local government, but I am most worried it will become negative for local residents,' he said. 'So we told the Japanese government to improve the traffic first.' Kumamoto's municipalities have been working to ease congestion around the plant, widening roads and encouraging use of public transportation. 'It is our hope that TSMC executives accurately understand what the local community is doing to address this issue,' a spokesperson for Kumamoto prefecture said. 'We will continue to provide support for the construction of the second plant.' In response to Wei's comments, Japan's chief government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said at a regular news conference, 'Heightened uncertainty in the global economy, along with challenges including the lack of domestic infrastructure and labor can lead to hesitation among private companies thinking of investing.' Tokyo recognizes the need to create an environment that attracts talent and investment from overseas, he said. The holdup in Japan recalls earlier hitches in getting production up and running at TSMC's newest US facilities in Arizona — though TSMC has made significant headway since. There also remain questions about the longer-term outlook for AI demand. Even before Washington slapped additional tariffs on much of the world — only to roll them back shortly after — investors had questioned whether big tech firms from Microsoft Corp. to Meta Platforms Inc. will continue to buy Nvidia chips and build data centers at the same pace. Executives on Tuesday said demand for AI chips still outstripped supply. Wei reaffirmed the chipmaker was still looking for 2025 revenue growth in the mid-20% range, an outlook it delivered during quarterly earnings calls in April. But the executive also warned that the strengthening Taiwanese dollar was pressuring its margins, even though the company expects record profit this year. TSMC executives have stressed that demand — particularly for high-end chips critical to developing artificial intelligence — has remained resilient. That's helped reassure investors fearful of the Trump administration's escalating campaign to curtail China's tech ambitions and impose sky-high tariffs on goods around the world. For 2025, the market remains nervous about the fallout for the global economy and a sector that supplies critical components to just about every industry on the planet. Taiwan's largest company is also evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates, Bloomberg News reported. The project — discussed with the Trump administration — is a substantial investment in what's called a gigafab, a complex of six factories similar to what TSMC is building in Arizona. On Tuesday, Wei said TSMC didn't harbor plans to build a chip fab in the region because there's no customer there.
Korea Herald
2 days ago
- Korea Herald
Seoul shares open higher after presidential election
South Korean stocks opened higher Wednesday, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street, a day after the presidential election. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 40.94 points, or 1.52 percent, to 2,739.91 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.51 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.81 percent. Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the liberal Democratic Party, won the election, defeating Kim Moon-soo of the conservative People Power Party. The vote followed the ousting of former President Yoon Suk Yeol after martial law was imposed in December. Lee began his five-year term earlier in the day following the National Election Commission's approval of his victory in a plenary session. In Seoul, most large-cap stocks advanced. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics rose 0.26 percent, and chip giant SK hynix soared 5.78 percent. Top automaker Hyundai Motor climbed 0.49 percent, and its sister affiliate Kia jumped 1.24 percent. Leading steelmaker POSCO Holdings rose 1.23 percent and Korea Aerospace Industries, the country's sole aircraft manufacturer, jumped 5.97 percent. Among decliners, POSCO's smaller rival Hyundai Steel fell 0.73 percent and leading shipbuilder HD Hyundai Heavy Industries shed 3.86 percent. The local currency was trading at 1,376.55 won against the greenback at 9:15 a.m., down 3.45 won from the previous session. (Yonhap)
Korea Herald
2 days ago
- Korea Herald
AI linked to a fourfold increase in productivity growth and 56% wage premium, while jobs grow even in the most easily automated roles: PwC 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer
LONDON, June 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- AI is making workers more valuable, productive, and able to command higher wage premiums, with job numbers rising even in roles considered most automatable, according to PwC's 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer, released today. The report is based on analysis of close to a billion job ads from six continents. The report finds that since GenAI's proliferation in 2022, productivity growth has nearly quadrupled in industries most exposed to AI (e.g. financial services, software publishing), rising from 7% from 2018-2022 to 27% from 2018-2024. In contrast, the rate of productivity growth in industries least exposed to AI (e.g. mining, hospitality) declined from 10% to 9% over the same period. 2024 data shows that the most AI exposed industries are now seeing 3x higher growth in revenue per employee than the least exposed. Carol Stubbings, Global Chief Commercial Officer, PwC, said: "This research shows that the power of AI to deliver for businesses is already being realised. And we are only at the start of the transition. As we roll out Agentic AI at enterprise scale, we are seeing that the right combination of technology and culture can create dramatic new opportunities to reimagine how organisations work and create value." Job numbers are rising in virtually every type of AI-exposed occupation, even those highly automatable Contrary to some expectations, the data from the report does not show job or wage destruction from AI. While occupations with lower exposure to AI saw strong job growth (65%) in recent years (2019-2024), growth remained robust even in more exposed occupations (38%). Within more exposed occupations, jobs can be further divided into 'automated' (i.e., the job contains some tasks that AI can carry out) and 'augmented' (i.e., where AI helps a human do their job better). Across both classifications between 2019-24, job numbers are growing in every industry analysed, although augmented jobs are generally growing faster. Wages are growing twice as fast in AI-exposed industries Wages are growing twice as fast in industries more exposed to AI versus less exposed, with wages rising in both automatable and augmentable jobs. Jobs which require AI skills also offer a wage premium (over similar roles that don't require AI skills) in every industry analysed, with the average premium hitting 56%, up from 25% last year. Jobs that require such AI skills also continue to grow faster than all jobs – rising 7.5% from last year, even as total job postings fell 11.3%. Joe Atkinson, Global Chief AI Officer, PwC, said: "In contrast to worries that AI could cause sharp reductions in the number of jobs available – this year's findings show jobs are growing in virtually every type of AI-exposed occupation, including highly automatable ones. AI is amplifying and democratizing expertise, enabling employees to multiply their impact and focus on higher-level responsibilities. With the right foundations, both companies and workers can re-define their roles and industries and emerge leaders in their field, particularly as the full gambit of applications becomes clearer." The skills earthquake accelerates – AI is creating deep change in the skills workers need to succeed While the picture on productivity, wages and jobs is broadly positive, the research does highlight the need for workers and businesses to adapt to a much faster pace of change. The skills sought by employers are changing 66% faster in occupations most exposed to AI, up from 25% last year. What it takes to succeed in AI-exposed jobs is changing in other ways. Employer demand for formal degrees is declining for all jobs, but especially quickly for AI-exposed jobs. The percentage of jobs AI augments that require a degree fell 7 percentage points between 2019 and 2024 from 66% to 59%, and 9 percentage points (53% to 44%) for jobs AI automates. The findings show that AI's impact on women and men may be unequal – in every country analysed, more women than men are in AI-exposed roles, suggesting the skills pressure facing women will be higher. Pete Brown, Global Workforce Leader, PwC, said: "AI's rapid advance is not just re-shaping industries, but fundamentally altering the workforce and the skills required. This is not a situation that employers can easily buy their way out of. Even if they can pay the premium required to attract talent with AI skills, those skills can quickly become out of date without investment in the systems to help the workforce learn." The AI business imperative If businesses are to turbocharge their growth and leverage the opportunity afforded by AI, they must put AI front-and-centre, now. The report recommends five key actions for businesses: About the PwC 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer The AI Jobs Barometer analysed close to a billion job ads and thousands of company financial reports across six continents to reveal AI's impact on jobs, wages, skills, and productivity. The Barometer includes some of the most recent available data on AI's impact including the latest available job ads and company reports through the end of 2024. We define a job as 'AI-exposed' if it contains many tasks in which AI can be used according to the well-established AI Occupational Exposure index. Definitions: 'More exposed' jobs are the 50% of jobs with greater AI exposure; 'Less exposed' jobs are the 50% of jobs with lower AI exposure; 'Most exposed' jobs are the 25% of jobs with the greatest AI exposure. We use the IMF's methodology to separately analyse AI-exposed jobs that are highly automatable (which means the job contains many tasks AI can perform) versus jobs that are highly augmentable (which means the job contains many tasks in which AI supports human expertise and judgment). You can read the full report and learn more about the key takeaways for business at About PwC At PwC, we help clients build trust and reinvent so they can turn complexity into competitive advantage. We're a tech-forward, people-empowered network with more than 370,000 people in 149 countries. Across audit and assurance, tax and legal, deals and consulting we help build, accelerate and sustain momentum. Find out more at
