Kim Yong-beom: 'AI is a production revolution that will reshape industries and macroeconomic balance'

Kim Yong-beom, chief of the presidential policy office at Cheong Wa Dae, on Saturday put forward what he called a "production revolution" thesis, arguing that AI is "not merely a technological revolution but a production revolution."

In a Facebook post, Kim said the production revolution "transforms not only industrial structure but the balance of the macroeconomy, and ultimately redefines the very character of the state." He described it as "a historic shift in which production costs, production time and production scale all change at once."

"When the mode of production changes, industries change; the flow of capital and labor shifts; and ultimately the state is redesigned on top of a new mode of production," he added.

Kim cited 18th-century Britain's transformation of its production system through the steam engine, saying: "Technology changes production, and production changes the state. We now stand before yet another turning point."

"If the internet was a revolution in information, AI is a revolution in production," he said. "AI is not a technology that transmits information — it turns knowledge and judgment themselves into a new means of production."

On the intensifying global competition to advance AI industrial systems, Kim said countries today are not competing to build better chatbots. "The competition is over who secures more power, who builds more data centers, who can stably produce cutting-edge semiconductors, and who can deploy AI into real industries and cities the fastest," he said. Competitiveness in the AI era, he added, comes down to "who can produce and operate AI most extensively, most stably, and for the longest time."

He also reiterated the three pillars of the AI production system: semiconductors, data centers and physical AI.

"Production generates more data, data produces better AI, and better AI in turn raises productivity," Kim said. "Competitiveness in the production revolution is determined not by any individual technology, but by how quickly and how sustainably that virtuous cycle can be maintained."

On the strategic importance of high-bandwidth memory, Kim said South Korea occupies a critical position. "Korean companies currently hold a world-class competitive edge in HBM, which is a meaningful strategic asset within the AI production system," he said.

Kim doubled down on his argument that competitiveness in the AI era belongs not to individual companies but to the entire national production system. "When semiconductors, data centers, manufacturing capacity and power infrastructure are connected as a single system, a country becomes a production platform," he said. "South Korea is already one of the few countries with that potential."

"The production revolution redesigns the state," he added.

Kim said the state must play a role in building productive capacity, reproducing it and channeling the fruits of production back into further production.

"The AI production revolution will place at the center of the next era the country that organizes the most capable production system," he said. "The Republic of Korea stands at that historic turning point right now. AI is not a technological revolution — it is a production revolution. And national power in the AI era is determined not by technological prowess, but by the ability to organize a production system."