After UK and India, AI global summit to be held in South Korea next week

Seoul/New Delhi, May 17: As the world leaders deliberate on AI safety to reach a global framework, the next global summit on the new disruptive technology will be held in South Korea next week.

After the maiden ‘AI Safety Summit’ in the UK in November last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 29-nation, Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) summit in New Delhi in December, saying AI has the potential to transform India’s tech landscape.

Now South Korea and Britain will jointly host the AI summit in Seoul next week, the science ministry here said on Friday.

The ‘AI Seoul Summit’ will kick off on Tuesday with leaders of major countries and global tech firms attending, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT, reports Yonhap news agency.

It will consist of the leaders' session, which will be themed ‘Building on the AI Safety Summit: towards an Innovative and Inclusive Future’ and the ministers' session, where AI safety and sustainable development of AI will be discussed.

In detail, government, industry and academic officials from 19 countries plan to attend the ministers' session to discuss global cooperation on AI safety and discuss measures to respond to possible risks involving AI in the future, such as massive energy consumption, according to the ministry.

On the second day, the AI Global Forum will also take place, solely hosted by the South Korean government as proposed by President Yoon Suk Yeol during his keynote address to the U.N. General Assembly last year to launch a new AI global governance structure.

"The AI Seoul Summit plans to propose safety, innovation and inclusiveness as three goals of AI governance to international society," Song Sang-hoon, deputy minister of the office of ICT policy at the science ministry, said, noting the event will help the country reflect its AI and digital vision in the global initiative.