The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) is reinventing itself as a cradle for cultivating core artificial intelligence talent through reforms to its academic system. The plan aims to strengthen Korea's national AI competitiveness by building a practical education framework that applies AI to real industrial settings.
Bae Kyung-hoon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT, delivered a keynote address titled "The Future of Korea: People Who Change AI" at the KAIST AI College Vision Declaration Ceremony held at KAIST in Daejeon on Monday. Bae explored directions for educational innovation in AI talent development together with KAIST officials and experts from industry, academia and research. At the event, Bae urged KAIST to "design your own AI major beyond interdisciplinary boundaries and create AI that pursues humanity by solving difficult challenges across various industrial sites."
The KAIST AI College has been operating its undergraduate program since this spring semester. KAIST plans to launch more than 50 AI-specialized courses going forward, reflecting the educational needs raised at the event. The goal is to build an industry-oriented curriculum that connects problem definition to AI modeling based on real industrial data.
KAIST will also recruit private-sector experts as adjunct faculty and expand related programs so that students can design customized AX majors using AI. Yoon Kuk-jin, dean of the KAIST AI College, explained the educational direction, saying, "We will build a full-stack, full-cycle convergence-based AI education and research system that combines AI core technology, AI systems and infrastructure, AI+X convergence, and AI future design."
The event also included an appointment ceremony for the AI College advisory board, which brings together industry leaders and global experts. Yoshua Bengio, professor at the University of Montreal, and Kyunghyun Cho, professor at New York University, both renowned AI scholars, will serve as overseas advisers. Domestic advisers include officials from major companies and research institutions such as the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Naver Cloud, Lunit, Rebellions, Samsung Electronics, SK Telecom, Upstage, NC AI, Enable Fusion, Krafton, and Hyundai Motor and 42dot.
