It has been predicted that virtual technologies, such as the metaverse and digital twins, will bring about major transformations in culture, industry, and lifestyle, and that digital virtual technologies will drive the entire ICT industry.

The Ministry of Science and ICT held the '2022 ICT Industry Outlook Conference' simultaneously online and offline on November 4th and 5th. This conference was held under the theme 'Great Digital Transformation, Future Through Innovation!'

At this event, leading domestic and international ICT experts and business leaders shared the latest information through trends and business cases in the ICT industry that will open up Korea's innovative future.

On the second day of the event, Park Jin-ah, PD at the Korea Institute of Construction Technology, stated in a presentation titled 'Key Technologies Leading the DT Era: Digital Twin' that digital technology is driving changes in the competition for industrial leadership, bringing about a transition to a user-centric environment by addressing user needs and providing information.

In addition, various examples were introduced in the manufacturing and consumer goods industries, and technologies were presented on how digital twins can solve the relationships between various invisible elements to find the efficiency of functional models and how virtual worlds can combine objects identical to reality.

It was stated that through this, digital twins are creating new means and generating new value.

Following this, in a presentation titled 'Changes in the AI-DATA Platform Environment and Implications,' ETRI Principal Researcher Ji-Hyung Jeong stated that efforts are underway to achieve more powerful performance at lower costs through technologies such as GAN, BERT, and GPT-3, as well as to secure safer and more ethical technologies like Explainable AI, noting that this requires large amounts of data and immense computing power.

It was reported that data is steadily increasing in importance from both a quantitative and a business perspective, noting that the volume of data is increasing explosively due to the proliferation of digital devices and services such as smartphones, while the size of the data industry, including data trading, related solutions, and systems, is also steadily growing.

In particular, due to the normalization of smartphones in daily life and the spread of the Internet of Things, in daily life It was mentioned that the environment related to AI data platforms is changing, such as the increasing threat of privacy infringement.

It was stated that, in particular, government regulations are intensifying due to privacy protection, the strengthening of the right to control one's own information, and fair competition, and that invisible borders are being created on the internet.

It was reported that the possibility of cartels forming is increasing, particularly in areas dealing with sensitive data such as privacy, and that rising digital trade barriers are creating opportunities for local powerhouses to grow.

Accordingly, it was stated that new technologies for handling information are necessary, and that Korea also needs a strategy to expand into other countries.

Following this, Lee Geon-bok, Senior Vice President at Microsoft, gave a presentation on the theme of "The Coexistence of Reality and Unreality, the Expanded Virtual World Metaverse."

Executive Director Lee Geon-bok mentioned that the metaverse integrates the physical and virtual worlds, enabling analysis, large-scale data storage, and the utilization of computing resources that were not possible in the real world.

In particular, it was stated that the metaverse can be used to perform functions such as interaction, prediction, simulation, autonomous control, tracking and analyzing the past, monitoring, information synchronization, and physical assets, and that it enables person-to-person communication and collaboration, as well as access without spatial or location constraints.

Along with this, it was reported that interaction with devices is evolving, and related industries such as sensors, cloud, communications, software, and displays are also becoming important to enable virtual space.

Following this, Unity’s Team Leader Jihyun Oh, in a presentation titled "Industry Trends Leading to the Shift to the Metaverse," stated that the Metaverse can leverage the strengths of the online world, introduce things into reality that are impossible to do in the real world to enhance focus, and create a dynamic and energetic environment.

The metaverse is a virtual space for conferences as well as meetings. It was mentioned that the advantages of this application include more efficient facial expressions, gestures, and communication, and that it resolves spatial constraints and increases time and cost efficiency by enabling physically separated individuals and companies to work together in the same space.

In particular, it was stated that it can be utilized in all areas of industry, culture, and daily life, including autonomous driving, manufacturing, construction, defense, sales, marketing, service, and maintenance, enabling the creation of diverse business opportunities.