[AI Library] Chapter 25: The AI Revolution and the State's Role
The Han Dong-hoon Story
Chapter 25: The AI Revolution and the State's Role
Kim Kyung-jin
The Han Dong-hoon Story
PART 06 Han Dong-hoon Pledges to Open a New Era: Original Text 03
I am referring to 18th-century England, when the steam engine was first invented. People no longer had to rely solely on their own muscle power to work. Machines allowed humans to transcend their physical limitations. That was the First Industrial Revolution, a revolution of overcoming physical constraints. Factories that adopted the steam engine flourished, and the craftspeople who had hand-spun looms vanished into history.
Countries that rejected change became colonies, and countries that drove change dominated the world. There was no neutrality in the face of technological revolution. You either climbed aboard or were swept away.
Now we stand before another great wave.
It is the artificial intelligence revolution.
Han Dong-hoon defines this as a revolution of overcoming intellectual constraints.
If machines of the past replaced human arms and legs, AI extends the human brain. What would take us a lifetime to read, AI analyzes in mere seconds. Problems we could not solve, AI instantly provides solutions for.
If your child is studying sleeplessly to enter medical school, ask this question: Will doctors still diagnose the same way ten years from now? AI's accuracy in detecting cancer from X-ray images has already surpassed human doctors.
Lawyers, accountants, translators,all the professions once considered safe are now trembling.
Han Dong-hoon says this:
The age of general artificial intelligence will come within three to five years. This is not science fiction about a distant future. It is the reality unfolding before our eyes right now. The speed of this change is so rapid that even a moment's hesitation could leave us permanently behind.
Then what must the nation, the government, do?
Han Dong-hoon's answer is clear: The nation must lay the infrastructure.
Do you remember when President Park Chung-hee built the Busan-Seoul Expressway and established Pohang Iron and Steel? At the time, criticism poured in: What is a highway for when there are no cars? There was ridicule too: What will we build with a steel mill?
But because that expressway existed, the automobile industry emerged, logistics flowed, and the Korean economy could surge forward. Because of Pohang Iron and Steel, Hyundai Shipbuilding could construct ships, and Samsung could build semiconductor factories.
What is the expressway for the AI era?
Data centers and power grids. Running AI requires tremendous amounts of electricity. For semiconductor factories to operate without stopping, stable power supply is vital. Han Dong-hoon argues that the government must step forward to build nuclear power plants, erect transmission towers, and establish large-scale data center complexes. The state must take the lead in solving projects too vast and too risky for private companies to bear alone.
Right now, America's major tech companies are acquiring entire nuclear power plants for their AI data centers. Microsoft has secured Three Mile Island, and Amazon has secured a Pennsylvania plant. We have entered an era where electricity is the lifeblood of AI, the source of national power. But what about us? Are we wasting time trapped in debates about abandoning nuclear energy? He challenges the conservative establishment's traditional dogma of small government and raises the need for strong and capable government. Today's global competition transcends competition between companies and takes on the character of total nation-to-nation struggle. Trump and Xi Jinping both roll up their sleeves for their own companies, but our government cannot simply stand with folded hands and regulate. The state must take on the dirty work, the difficult work.
The United States is pouring $52 billion through the Chips Act. China has declared a state-led AI rise and is investing astronomical sums. Japan is now mobilizing all national resources for semiconductor revival. What happens if we step back saying let the market handle it on this battlefield?
His thinking on regulation is equally firm: Everything should be permitted except what cannot be. Until now, whenever new technology emerged, we first tried to regulate it. Drones appeared: you cannot fly them there. Autonomous vehicles came: you cannot drive them here. AI arrived: you cannot use this. The regulator's first instinct is no. Why? Because if they say yes and an accident occurs, they become liable. Can innovation happen in such a structure?
But AI competition is a race against time. We cannot tie sandbags around the ankles of runners scrambling to keep pace. Han Dong-hoon wants to create a playground where AI can run freely. He has put forward an audacious pledge: Invest 150 trillion won in AI infrastructure, 50 trillion won in ecosystem development, for a total of 200 trillion won. This is an approach where government primes the pump to draw out private investment.
On data regulation too, he is bold.
Government must loosen data restrictions even if it means accepting some side effects. The fact that even the European Union, which strictly regulates personal information, is loosening restrictions shows that this is not ordinary times. He also says that military exemptions should be actively applied to AI talents so that overseas students can return to Korea.
Military exemptions for AI talent should apply not just to small companies but to large corporations as well. Do you know how many Korean geniuses are researching AI in Silicon Valley right now? Many of them cannot return to Korea because of military service obligations. If they return, they cannot conduct AI research for two years. In the AI world, two years is a generation. So they acquire U.S. citizenship and work for American companies. How long will we tolerate this irony, where talent nurtured by the Republic of Korea works for our competitors? This is not simply about earning money. It is a matter of Korea's survival. The nation that masters AI technology will seize the future.
Han Dong-hoon hopes Korea will be that protagonist. The future he envisions is a world in which the Korean people, holding the powerful tool of AI in their hands, live more prosperous and wiser lives than anyone else in the world.
We must also pay attention to global bloc formation.
In the AI competition era, will we go alongside North Korea, China, and Russia, or will we align with the United States and Japan? Han Dong-hoon's answer is clear. One of the achievements of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration was properly integrating into the Korea-US-Japan bloc.
He warns: If a pro-China administration takes power, Korea will face a difficult situation in a blocalized international environment, affecting both the political system and the economy.
In 1950, because the Republic of Korea stood with the free world, we have been able to enjoy today's prosperity. What would our fate have been if we had sided with North Korea then?
The choice of bloc in the AI era is the same. This is not merely a diplomatic question; it is a civilizational choice that determines the fate of our descendants for generations to come.
He is now turning the first spade for the expressway to the future.
Did those who attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the Busan-Seoul Expressway in 1970 know that it would change Korea's fate?
In 2025, when Han Dong-hoon is opening the AI expressway wide, fifty years from now people will remember it this way: that decision made Korea an AI superpower. This is precisely the national model for the AI era that Han Dong-hoon envisions.
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Kim Kyung-jin
Attorney · Former Member of the National Assembly · AI Policy Researcher
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