February 26, 2025
SEOUL – South Korea’s Defense Ministry plans to conduct a test run of its newly developed generative artificial intelligence system during a joint springtime military drill with the United States, officials said Tuesday.
If incorporated during the annual South Korea-US Freedom Shield exercise scheduled for next month, it will mark the first time that generative AI is used in a joint military drill between the allies, a ministry official said during a regular briefing.
The test run will focus on how the allies could use the Generative Defense AI (GeDAI) the Defense Ministry has developed in actual military operations. The ministry’s GeDAI is developed based on the input of regular public data and not classified military documents, according to the official.
“We plan to test-run the generative AI program we developed to find out how we can actually adopt it in our joint military command and control system,” the official said. “We plan to receive additional feedback from users and draw up plans on how to further develop the program.”
The Defense Ministry’s announcement comes amid the advance in generative AI use in the military domain globally.
On the upcoming annual South Korea-US joint military exercise, acting President and Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok said during a Cabinet meeting held in the morning that the drill will be held as planned, dispelling concerns that the allied drills could be either suspended or scaled back. Such concerns are in line with US President Donald Trump’s criticisms of the drills as “expensive” war games despite North Korea’s advancing nuclear program posing a major threat to the security on the Korean Peninsula.