Top South Korean defence aerospace players continue to invest in companies that specialise in artificial intelligence.
Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) says it has invested KRW6 billion ($4.1 million) in GenGenAI, a local AI firm, making it the second largest shareholder with a 9.87% stake.
The company was founded in 2022 and specialises in producing data – such as that from military engagements – that is difficult to collect in the real world.
“With this investment, KAI’s strategy is to steadily supply high-quality synthetic data and advance the technology of AI pilots, which are the core of future air combat systems,” says the company.
“In particular, through GenGenAI, it plans to shorten the data collection period by up to 90% and reduce costs by more than 50%, thereby further enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of AI data learning.”
KAI envisages that GenGenAI’s data will help it improve automatic target recognition across a range of sensors such as visible light, infrared, and radar.
KAI has already invested in other AI firms such as Konan, which generates AI through large language models, Meisa, which specialises in the analysis of satellite images, and Funjin, which focuses on AI decision making.
In December 2024 the company revealed that it intends to test its AI model in the FA-50 light combat aircraft as a step to future unmanned aircraft. The company’s AI effort is named “K-AI Pilot” and will see it use the FA-50 airframe to explore autonomous flight capabilities by 2026.
KAI’s move to invest in GenGenAI follows an announcement by US firm Shield AI that South Korea’s Hanwha Asset Management – a sister company of Hanwha Aerospace – and L3Harris had participated in a $240 million funding round.
Shield AI says that the funding will continue to support its development of Hivemind Enterprise, which helps companies build autonomy for “intelligent machines”.
“The same tools that make up Hivemind Enterprise have already enabled Shield AI to autonomously fly F-16s, MQ-20s, MQM-178s, operate V-BATs in GPS- and communications-denied environments, and have quadcopters explore buildings and tunnels for US and Israeli forces,” says Shield AI president and co-founder Brandon Tseng.
“Partnerships with strategics like L3Harris and Hanwha Asset Management further accelerate efforts to proliferate resilient autonomy.”
KAI and South Korea have long expressed an interest in using AI for unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs). At the 2023 Seoul ADEX show, KAI and domestic rival Korean Air displayed models of future UCAVs, depicting them as accompanying manned fighters to perform missions.
