[News] Fourth Industrial Revolution's Paradigm, 'Creative Destruction'

(Tax & Financial Times = Patent Attorney Sung-pil Hwang) “A post cultural industrial revolution, where local content that people worldwide can relate to and enjoy is globally converged and reinterpreted, is arriving based on the technological elements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is a process of building an integrated mirroring system of reality and virtuality, where the connection between humans and objects expands rapidly, centered on artificial intelligence (AI). Generally, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), autonomous vehicles (drones, self driving cars), 3D printing, and nanotechnology are identified as the six core technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Currently, active research is underway not only on each of these technologies but also on their convergence.

However, when discussing the Fourth Industrial Revolution, these converging technologies are merely means. Setting aside the debate on strong AI, technology itself does not endow humans with any sense of purpose. Consideration must first be given to how developed technologies (civilization) or rather, technologies to be developed can enhance the "cultural" life of human beings.

The core of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is convergence, and this convergence must be backed by "a creative and disruptive spirit of innovation." We recognize the cultural content industry as the most creative industry, and it is the very core element that demonstrates the paradigm of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

In other words, the core competence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is a technology based "spirit of creative destruction." In the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, along with technology, the creative spirit inherent in the creation of cultural content is required. Furthermore, the disruptive innovation spirit of startups to solve existing problems is also needed.

When conducting consulting to apply AI to an enterprise, the most crucial task is to identify what kind of data the company possesses. If you do not know what you have, you cannot proceed with anything.

Furthermore, even if you know what kind of data you possess, the next issue that arises is how to develop a new business model with a creative spirit. Without this "creative spirit," even if you develop an excellent data-driven AI, it will merely be an object with no known use.

Cultural content is derived from a long history, experience, and deep reflection. For creative cultural content, it is crucial to learn about the past to understand what prior content one possesses. Currently, although not perfect, AI can compose music, write novels, and paint pictures.

Humans will not necessarily enjoy works created(?) by AI, but they will utilize them well. Humans are creative animals. Humans enjoy creating AI that can mimic and modify human creations much like humans do. The data used for training AI capable of producing cultural content is also, ultimately, data created by humans.

Recently, I had the opportunity to meet "Helena Ku Rhee," a Korean American who serves as a Vice President at Sony Pictures Entertainment in the U.S. and also works as a children's book author. She has recently garnered significant attention by releasing ‘The Turtle Ship,’ a unique picture book motivated by Yi Sun sin, the 500 year old hero of the Imjin War.

As Koreans living in South Korea, we rarely have the luxury to look back and see how unique and interesting our own culture is, partly because it is so familiar to us. It is said that Gandhi of India also opened his eyes to the reality of India while studying abroad in England. Sometimes, it is necessary for us to view ourselves through the perspectives of overseas Koreans or foreigners.

Helena Ku Rhee’s story allows us to look back at what kind of creative spirit a leader of the Fourth Industrial Revolution should possess in this new era. The story of Admiral Yi Sun sin has been reconstructed into various versions, including movies, dramas, and novels.

However, we need to pay attention to the fact that she newly birthed the story of a young Yi Sun sin into an original children's book. The English picture book ‘The Turtle Ship’ was published in the U.S. in June this year and topped the Amazon Asian Children's Book Bestseller list. The book reportedly began from Helena Ku Rhee’s whimsical, fairy tale imagination: "What if Admiral Yi Sun sin raised a pet turtle during his childhood?" The story depicts how the deep bond Yi shared with his pet turtle during his youth later inspired him to build the world's finest warship. In other words, a profound childhood memory with a turtle became the driving force to save the nation.

It was 15 years ago when she first decided to write about Admiral Yi Sun sin. Initially, she wrote the story from the king's perspective, but later changed the protagonist to 'young Yi Sun-sin' for her target audience of children.

"Growing up in the U.S. as a Korean American, I frequently encountered the story of Admiral Yi Sun sin since childhood.

Then, after finishing college, I spent a year in Korea as an English instructor, which gave me an opportunity to learn more about Admiral Yi Sun-sin and the history of that era. It was absolutely wonderful. However, from a global perspective, it was disheartening that far more people were unaware of Admiral Yi Sun-sin and the Turtle Ship that saved the country during the Joseon Dynasty, so I began studying and writing the story from then on."While Yi Sun-sin is incredibly familiar to us, from the perspective of a Korean American, and furthermore, from a foreigner's point of view, it can be a more fascinating story than any othe

In particular, the fact that one of the most beloved historical figures among Koreans has been reborn as an English children’s book in the United States and is being read by English speaking children carries great significance, both as an author and as a Korean American identity.

Many Asian countries, including Korea, China, and Japan, have developed diverse cultures throughout their long histories, and these cultures themselves are recreations and reinterpretations of past traditions. The convergence of technologies for the Fourth Industrial Revolution is certainly important. However, in reality, there is still insufficient discussion regarding for what purpose and how creatively these technologies should be combined. The answer lies in human beings who create cultural content, and in humanity’s creative spirit itself.

Only ten years ago, few of us could have imagined that K-POP would become globally popular. Today, however, we possess technologies that allow unique regional content to be rapidly shared around the world.

A new era of cultural revolution, driven by technology, is now emerging.

[프로필] 황 성 필

· 만성국제특허법률사무소 파트너 변리사· 국제변리사연맹 한국 이사· AI 엑셀러레이션회사 에이블러 대표· SBS콘텐츠 허브·연세대학교 연세생활건강·와이랩(YLAB) 법률자문 및 서울대학교 NCIA 법률고문 등