Bae Choong-sik, president of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), said on the 24th that the university will redesign every undergraduate and graduate course according to its level of artificial intelligence use, starting next March. "Ultimately, all 750 KAIST professors will serve as joint faculty of the College of AI," Bae said. "We will build an 'AI-native campus' that connects not only education and research but also administration and campus infrastructure through AI."
Bae made the remarks at his first news briefing since taking office, held at a restaurant in Jongno-gu, Seoul, that day. "We will push ahead first with tasks we can actually carry out — strengthening startup education for freshmen, and expanding corporate satellite labs and AI autonomous labs — so that our vision of a 'globally innovation-leading university with strong fundamentals' translates into results on the ground," he said.
Bae was appointed KAIST's 18th president by the board of trustees last June. He graduated from Seoul National University's department of aerospace engineering and earned a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Imperial College London in the United Kingdom. His field of expertise is eco-friendly energy and carbon-neutral power engineering. He joined KAIST as a professor in 1998 and served as head of the school of mechanical and aerospace engineering and dean of the college of engineering.
At the briefing, Bae repeatedly stressed a sweeping overhaul of the university through AI. The plan is to redesign every course according to its level of AI use while simultaneously changing the education system for all students. "The thing I most want to change for certain during my term is making every course AI-based," Bae said. "When the new semester begins next March, every course taken by second-, third- and fourth-year students and graduate students, not just freshmen, will have a defined level of AI use."
KAIST launched its College of AI last year to consolidate its AI education and research capabilities. Because of this, a question arose at the briefing over whether redesigning all courses around AI would overlap with the role of the College of AI. "The College of AI is an organization that plays a central role in making the entire school AI-based," Bae said. "The College of AI concentrates on core AI technologies and foundational and future technologies such as physical AI, while the existing departments apply these to their respective fields."
In research, the university will expand convergence studies in physical AI and in AI paired with energy, quantum science, nuclear fusion and bio fields. Bae singled out physical AI in particular as KAIST's decisive arena. "In physical AI alone, we can become the world's No. 1," Bae said. "KAIST's role is to advance our manufacturing capabilities while applying AI to create national wealth through physical AI." His view is that, as general-purpose AI spreads rapidly, South Korea — with its manufacturing base — can secure a competitive edge in areas where AI combines with the physical world, such as robots and smart factories. Working with companies, the university plans to build "AI autonomous labs," in which AI takes part in designing and conducting experiments and in analyzing data, and to add more corporate satellite labs and joint research centers, strengthening a structure in which research results lead to industry.
These changes also connect to startups. KAIST already encourages technology startups by professors and students and operates various programs, such as leaves of absence for founding a business. "Far more often than students entering with the thought 'I will start a business,' they come to KAIST and then think about what they want to become," Bae said. "Going forward, we will begin startup education from the admission stage and build a step-by-step startup education that runs from freshmen to undergraduates to graduate students."
This does not mean recklessly increasing AI use in every class. Bae warned against situations in which AI replaces the students' thinking process itself. "As things stand now, when we assign homework, students turn in reports with the help of AI," he said. "When studying the fundamentals of the humanities and social sciences and the principles of basic science, we will guide students to step away from AI and develop the ability to memorize, think and judge on their own."
"KAIST will not follow the world's top universities but will set a new standard for universities," Bae said. "We will create new models in education and research in the AI era, in technology startups, in university management, in sustainable campuses and in global cooperation, and spread them to the world."
