South Korea to build US$86 million AI supercomputers

The South Korean government will spend KRW 100 billion (US$86.7 million) on supercomputers for artificial intelligence, it announced this week.

Supercomputers can analyze massive amounts of data faster, and help governments make more accurate decisions, like predicting natural disasters. South Korea will use supercomputers to develop artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and big data analytics in government, the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning said. It will spend KRW 10 billion (US$8.6 million) every year for the next 10 years to build the computers and develop the technologies.

The first phase of the project will build a supercomputer for five years, which could predict marine disasters, landslides, and wildfires. This will be capable of processing a quadrillion (1000 trillion) digits in a second.

In the next five years, the computer’s capacity will grow by 30 times.

“The latest developments in artificial intelligence have been made possible through supercomputers supporting high-speed data processing of large datasets,” the ministry said.

The government plans to spend US$840 million to research and develop artificial intelligence in the next five years, the ministry announced last month. It is also building fire rescue robots that could replace humans in complex missions, like in chemical plants and explosions.