NAVER Cloud has proposed a defense artificial intelligence framework in which the military and the private sector work together from development through field operations, going beyond simply supplying AI technology to the armed forces. Because AI is changing the very way wars are fought, the company argues, businesses should not merely hand over technology after the fact but should solve on-the-ground problems alongside the military from the earliest stages of development.
Kim Sun-ho, a former vice defense minister whom NAVER recently brought on as a full-time management adviser, said at NAVER Cloud's Defense AI Strategy Seminar at the Shilla Hotel in Seoul on Sept. 18 that "if you try to solve AI within the existing framework, there will be no answer." He stressed the need to "design a completely new approach and system."
As AI is combined with existing weapons systems such as drones, combat systems themselves are changing. The former vice minister cited the war in Ukraine as a leading example. Early on, he said, it was a matter of deploying large numbers of low-cost drones, but more recently drones have been paired with AI and linked to one another through networks, evolving into a new combat system. AI, too, is expanding into recognizing battlefield conditions, predicting enemy movements and presenting multiple response options, he explained.
He also stressed that civil-military cooperation should begin at the requirement stage rather than after a weapons system has been developed, with the private sector taking part from the moment the military defines the weapons systems and capabilities it needs. "The military and the private sector should work together from the point requirements are drawn up, and should look at the field and think through the problems together until those requirements are turned into deployed capabilities in the field and operated on the battlefield," Kim said.
Another principle presented was that while private-sector AI technology should be used actively, the military must retain control over defense data and AI models. AI can fuse data to analyze battlefield conditions and suggest courses of action, but final decisions, orders and responsibility for the outcomes must not be handed over to AI.
NAVER Cloud is linking this concept to how it actually runs defense AI projects. Field-deployed engineers identify requirements at military sites and continuously feed them back into the technology. Rather than delivering AI models and infrastructure as a one-off, the arrangement calls for operating them together with the military and improving performance to match actual missions.
Kim You-won, chief executive of NAVER Cloud, said defense AI "does not end with the adoption of technology, but must extend to defining the problems the military needs solved, verifying them in the field and turning them into deployed capabilities." He added, "NAVER will become a core partner that connects and supports the capabilities of the military, defense companies, startups and research institutes so they can solve real defense problems."
