Yoon declares Paris Initiative, calls for digital norms, meets Paris youths

Yoon makes a statement at the Paris Digital Vision Forum at the Sorbonne University in Paris, France, on June 21 (local). [Photo by Yonhap]

President Yoon Suk Yeol has declared the Paris Initiative, which contains the basic principles for establishing a global digital order to establish a digital ethics code in the era of advancing technologies such as ChatGPT.

On Wednesday, Yoon attended the Paris Digital Vision Forum at the Sorbonne University in Paris and emphasized that “a universal digital order that is internationally accepted is important.” He also added that “We must first establish the principle that digital should contribute to expanding human freedom and should not be used to suppress freedom.”

“I propose the establishment of an international organization to establish a digital order code,” Yoon said. “Today, the legal systems of most countries in the world and the international normative order are based on the spirit of the French Revolution,” he said, associating the new legal order established through the French Revolution with the digital order norms. “It is meaningful to have various discussions on how to establish an international organization. I think it is desirable for a United Nations organization to take the lead in reaching an international consensus.”

This has evolved from the New York Initiative, which was launched in New York last September, calling for a new digital order and establishing digital norms through global public discussion. Yoon’s proposal comes as artificial intelligence capabilities are expected to expand with growing impact, making the establishment of new AI ethical norms a global issue.

In particular, Yoon cited the convenience that the digital AI era brings to people, but also emphasized the risk that it can paradoxically threaten human freedom and emphasized the need to create new digital norms.

After proposing the Paris Initiative, Yoon met with European scholars, including novelist Bernard Berber and Sorbonne Professor Emeritus Daniel Andler, to examine the implications of digital technologies from a legal, philosophical and ethical perspective, and to discuss the values that new digital norms should aim for.

On Wednesday, Yoon also met with Korean and French youths in Paris and said, “Korea will support startups without limiting them to domestic activities so that foreign youths can start businesses in Korea and many Korean youths can go abroad for business.”

“A free system and a free market should allow young people of any nationality in the world to pursue innovation and start-ups wherever they are, and countries should provide opportunities and hardware for them to do so, and such countries can become leaders in entrepreneurial innovation,” Yoon said at the Korea-France dialogue with generation of future innovation held at Station F in Paris.

Station F is the world’s largest startup incubator, housed in a converted building in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. Yoon has always scheduled meetings with the youth and scholars of the country during his foreign trips, and this time in Paris, he met with French youth at startups and Korean youth together.