Recognizing the current situation and accepting change is important

"What matters in the Fourth Industrial Revolution era is soft power. A paradigm is coming in which ideas will dominate the economy"

As an economic strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution over the next decade, Yoon Jong-rok, president of the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA), stated: "What our country, which lacks natural resources and depends on imports for most necessities such as energy and food, must put forward as an economic strategy is the imagination to create things that did not exist before."

We face rapidly changing lives. Accordingly, a forum has been prepared to discuss with experts from each field on how to adapt and prepare at the national, individual, and business levels.

First, we examined what changes are taking place. Kim Jin-hyung, president of the Institute for Intelligent Information Technology, explained: "Semiconductor technology made computers smaller, and artificial intelligence that makes decisions like humans has emerged. Whereas previously the emphasis was on transferring knowledge that humans possess to machines, now we have entered an era where machines learn on their own. Rather than emphasizing the negative aspects of such technological development, this is the time to accept how it should be applied."

Professor Park Su-yong of Sogang University stated: "The economy is also transitioning from analog to digital. An era will come when physical currency disappears and digital currency becomes commonplace. With the emergence of blockchain technology based on trust, we will enter a sharing economy era where individuals can share automobiles, surplus energy, and labor directly without intermediaries."

As an era approaches where competition cannot occur without robots and artificial intelligence, there have been calls for comprehensive innovation in the education system. In the security field, with autonomous vehicles and the sharing economy emerging, personal authentication has been emphasized as critical.

Opinions followed regarding crises and responses that will arise from changes by field. Ahn Jong-bae, president of the International Futures Studies Association, advised: "Our country, which was an IT powerhouse, has now been caught up by China. This means talented individuals capable of adapting to the times have not been cultivated. We must utilize the creativity and imagination we possess."

While the view that artificial intelligence will destroy jobs prevails, President Kim stated: "It is true that artificial intelligence will have significant economic ripple effects, and it is also true that jobs will disappear very rapidly. Polarization will occur between those who have artificial intelligence technology and those who do not. There must be discussion about creating a society with dynamism and fairness across the board."

Regarding policies to address crises, Choi Un-ho, head of security at Huawei, said: "Fingerprint recognition will be widely used as a means to authenticate individuals. Mastercard stated it would replace cards with fingerprint cards within five years. Korea is already the only nation that can issue public documents using fingerprints. If security against threats and hacking is strengthened, we can move ahead." He advised that it is necessary to strengthen the personal authentication field.

Artificial intelligence has become an inevitable element that must be faced even without the technology. Regarding this, President Kim pointed out: "We are behind technologically. We must prepare now. To catch up, regulatory innovation must not happen gradually but must occur revolutionarily."

Professor Park stated: "When preparing policies not only in the financial sector but in all sectors, one must understand that doing something earlier is more valuable than doing something better. Until now, we tried to do what was better even if it was late, but if we wait for others to do it, it becomes too late." He emphasized that the direction should be toward protecting and supporting newly launched startups and venture companies.