The government's "K-Moonshot" project, designed to tackle national challenges using artificial intelligence (AI), is faltering in its early stages. Some of the program directors (PDs) leading the 12 national missions have expressed their intention to resign, jeopardizing the government's plan to double AI-based research productivity by 2030.
According to the science and technology community Wednesday, Lee Min-hyung, CEO of Asteromorph, recently informed the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) of his intention to step down from his post as PD of the K-Moonshot AI Scientist mission. A MSIT official explained that Lee "expressed his resignation for personal reasons." Lee's resignation is expected to be accepted after Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyung-hoon returns from a business trip to Italy.
K-Moonshot is a cross-ministry, innovative and challenge-oriented research and development (R&D) program led by MSIT. The government has set a goal to double science, technology, and AI-based research productivity by 2030, and to solve 12 national missions by 2035, including new drugs, brain-computer interfaces (BCI), solar cells, nuclear fusion, small modular reactor (SMR) ships, humanoids, physical AI, space, materials, AI scientists, semiconductors, and quantum technology. The plan aims to move beyond conventional R&D centered on individual projects, instead binding together ministries, government-funded research institutes, universities, companies, budgets, and research infrastructure for each mission.
The core is the PD system. A PD is not a principal investigator (PI) who directly carries out individual research, but an overall coordinator responsible for establishing mission-specific roadmaps, planning projects, managing milestones, coordinating between projects, and devising strategies to utilize results. The government had planned to form mission-specific steering committees centered on the PDs, with specialized agency PMs, director-level officials, project group heads, principal investigators, and outside experts coordinating projects together.
However, questions were raised over the PD selection and verification process even before the launch. Lee is the founder of Asteromorph, a science AI startup, and recently drew attention by attracting seed investment worth 42 billion won, with the goal of developing an "AI scientist" in which AI generates and verifies scientific hypotheses. The AI Scientist mission aims to build an autonomous science system that automates the generation and verification of scientific hypotheses using AI agents.
Currently, the PDs hold the status of non-resident expert committee members, but the government plans to convert them into special research fellows directly under the National Research Council of Science and Technology (NST) in July. Once they become special research fellows, they will be subject to conflict-of-interest prevention regulations equivalent to those for public officials, and their concurrent positions and for-profit activities will also be restricted. MSIT has stated that, in principle, PDs from corporate backgrounds need to work on a full-time basis. According to MSIT, Lee had also initially expressed his intention to step down from his CEO position and devote himself to K-Moonshot work, but ultimately announced his resignation from the PD post.
If Lee's resignation is accepted, MSIT is considering continuing the project by having the head of the National Science AI Research Center concurrently serve in the AI Scientist mission, rather than immediately selecting a new PD. The government said, "Since this mission is structured to be closely linked with the National Science AI Research Center, we will minimize the vacancy with the center at its core."
