Overview
- South Korea’s Science Ministry and Google DeepMind signed an MOU in Seoul on Monday to collaborate on AI‑driven scientific research and to open Google’s first AI Campus in the city within the year.
- The campus will act as a hub for researchers, universities such as Seoul National University and KAIST, startups, and the National Science AI Research Center that is slated to launch in May.
- The partners will set up a joint working group, arrange researcher exchanges and internships, and conduct AI safety research with Korea’s AI Safety Institute to develop testing methods and model safeguards.
- Following the signing, President Lee Jae Myung met CEO Demis Hassabis to discuss global guardrails and basic income ideas, and the government asked Google to send at least 10 engineers, a request Hassabis said he would consider.
- DeepMind said it plans to deepen industrial ties with Samsung, SK hynix, Hyundai and LG, extending a track record that includes AlphaGo’s 2016 Seoul match and AlphaFold’s protein prediction work used by researchers in Korea.