Google to build AI campus in South Korea, presidential office says
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South Korean President Lee Jae Myung (right) met Google DeepMind chief executive officer Demis Hassabis in Seoul on April 27.
PHOTO: EPA
SEOUL – South Korea and Google have agreed to build an artificial intelligence campus in Seoul to develop cooperation between the tech firm and local engineers and start-ups, Mr Kim Yong-beom, a presidential policy adviser, said on April 27.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung met Google DeepMind chief executive officer Demis Hassabis in Seoul on April 27, with the Science Ministry and the company signing a memorandum of understanding on the campus, Mr Kim said.
South Korea requested Google send at least 10 engineers to the AI campus from Google’s headquarters in the United States and Mr Hassabis said he would consider that, Mr Kim said.
The Google AI campus will be the first of its kind in the world for the US company, the presidential adviser said.
President Lee and Mr Hassabis shared their thoughts about the outlook for AI and its impact on people, with Mr Lee raising the need for the introduction of a base wage in case of job losses caused by AI at the meeting.
Mr Hassabis said he hoped with this partnership “to help with training up the next generation in these amazing technologies through internships at our AI hub and other training programmes”.
DeepMind would like to deepen partnerships with South Korean companies from Samsung and SK Hynix to Hyundai’s Boston Dynamics and LG and “instigate new joint projects” with them, he added.
He described South Korea as a “great industrial base” in all of the key AI areas, from chips to robotics.
The historic match between DeepMind’s AlphaGo program and Go player Lee Sedol in South Korea a decade ago signalled the beginning of the modern AI era and inspired many advances in AI, including its work in science like the Alphafold system for protein folding, Mr Hassabis said. REUTERS
