S. Korea-ASEAN partnership launches supercomputer in Indonesia

SEOUL, June 18 (Yonhap) -- A supercomputer built under a partnership between South Korea and Southeast Asian nations officially began operations in Indonesia, the science ministry said Thursday.

The ministry held an opening ceremony for the high-performing computing infrastructure of 4.2 petaflops with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information in Indonesia, it added.

The supercomputer, which is a crucial component for the machine learning of artificial intelligence (AI), comes as part of a digital partnership between South Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) established in 2024.

Thailand and Singapore used to be the only countries with such AI infrastructure among the 11 ASEAN member nations, the ministry said.

Seoul's science ministry added it plans to provide education and technical training to some 160 people set to manage the supercomputer, while supporting technical exchanges and joint research projects with ASEAN members.

This rendered image depicting generative artificial intelligence (AI) is provided by Yonhap News TV. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)