Naver Cloud pitches sovereign AI system to transform Korean military operations
Naver Cloud outlined a sovereign AI strategy to help South Korea’s military process battlefield information faster while keeping final operational decisions in human hands.
Naver Cloud CEO Kim Yu-won gives a welcoming remark to the audience during an AI defense seminar held on Sept. 18.NAVER CLOUD
Naver Cloud unveiled its defense AI transformation strategy at a defense AI seminar attended by 550 officials from the Ministry of National Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff and other major military branches.
“Defense AI should not end with the adoption of technology but must extend to defining the problems the military needs to solve, validating solutions in the field and ultimately deploying them as military capabilities,” Naver Cloud CEO Kim Yu-won said on Friday.
Kim Seon-ho, a former vice defense minister who joined Naver Cloud as a full-time adviser last month, presented the company's idea, emphasizing the need to build a “civil-military convergence ecosystem” in which the private sector leads technological innovation and the military rapidly integrates those technologies.
“The essence of defense AI transformation is not simply introducing a new system but using it to change the very way we conduct warfare,” he said. “The military and private sector need to work together in the field and collaborate from the development of systems all the way through their deployment on the battlefield."
Naver Cloud emphasized that it has positioned itself as well suited to building such a system, citing its infrastructure, namely AI data centers, and its capabilities in developing AI models.
Yu Kyung-bum, executive director in charge of Naver Cloud's defense business, cited the increasing speed of warfare, changes in the defense industry ecosystem and the need for sovereign AI. The necessary components, according to Yu, include AI models that centrally process information and support decision-making; agents that provide commanders with the information and capabilities they need; cloud technology that connects central systems with operational bases; and data centers.
“Defense sovereign AI can be accelerated only by creating a structure that brings together, connects, validates and evolves civilian technologies,” Yu said. “The final piece is the FDE, or forward-deployed engineer, who enters the military's closed network and works alongside the military to identify and solve problems.”
Naver Cloud outlines its AI defense strategy during a seminar held on Sept. 18.NAVER CLOUD
Naver Cloud director Lee So-eun also presented a demonstration video of an AI platform designed to detect developments in a simulated battlefield and support military commanders' decision-making. Lee highlighted Data Fabric technology, which organizes information flowing in from different sources, and Ontology technology, which structures military manuals and knowledge systems.
“Dominance on the battlefield comes down to who can understand the battlefield faster and translate that understanding into faster judgment and decisions,” Lee said.
“The platform detects signs of artillery fire in real time and flags them as situations requiring a commander's attention, while relevant information flows in through the Data Fabric in real time,” Lee continued. “Ontology technology then connects the newly received information with existing data to develop a comprehensive understanding of the current situation, including nearby units and military assets, terrain and reconnaissance information.”
Naver Cloud stressed, however, that final decisions on the battlefield “must be made by the military.”
“AI is expanding into remarkable areas, but one thing we must never relinquish is the decision to conduct an operation,” Kim Seon-ho said. “That decision must remain in human hands.”
“The military decides what data can be used and to what extent, which models should be used and what the approval criteria for policies should be,” said Naver Cloud director Park Jong-gun, who presented the company's cloud technology. “AI can support decision-making, but the final decision must be made by the military.”
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
