Google co-hosts AI Week with Korean gov’t for stronger presence

Yossi Matias, vice president of Engineering & Research at Google, is presenting at the AI Week 2023 held in Seoul on July 13. [Photo by Yonhap]

U.S. Google LLC has embarked on a significant move to lead the artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem in South Korea.

At the AI Week 2023, an event jointly organized with the Korean Ministry of Science and ICT on Thursday, the U.S. tech giant formalized its plans to strengthen multi-faceted collaboration with the Korean government, including fostering AI talent and enhancing related research and development.

Furthermore, in a nod to its position as the No. 2 player in the Korean search market, the company extensively promoted the Korean language version of its latest large-scale language model (LLM), PaLM 2-based AI search chatbot, “Bard.”

The three-day event, which runs through Saturday, is the largest AI conference that Google is organizing in Korea for the first time in collaboration with the Korean ministry. More than 60 speakers are set to take the stage, with more than 25 local companies participating.

“In order for Korea to take the lead in the fiercely competitive global AI market driven by super-sized AI, it is important for domestic companies to develop and spread their own super-sized AI models and enhance their technological capabilities and overseas expansion efforts through collaboration with global companies such as Google,” said ICT Minister Lee Jong-Ho.

The event was attended by Koh Jean, chairman of the Presidential Committee on Digital Platform Government, Park Sung-joong, a ruling party member of the National Assembly’s Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, Zhang Byoung-tak, a professor at Seoul National University, and Cho Joon-hee, chairman of the Korea Software Industry Association, among others.

Yossi Matias, vice president of Engineering & Research at Google, is presenting at the AI Week 2023 held in Seoul on July 13. [Photo by Yonhap]

During the event, Google also announced plans to solidify its partnership for the development of AI in Korea. The company plans to more than double the number of participants in the Machine Learning Bootcamp it operates in Korea to 500 this year from 200 last year.

The program connects university students with current developers to provide relevant training and job opportunities. Additionally, Google will introduce the “digital skilling program” for non-professionals without relevant degrees or job experience, which was previously available only overseas, to Korea this year.

Google has also selected seven outstanding AI researchers in Korea to support research projects on optimizing machine learning models.

Another noteworthy development at the event is that Google announced plans to upgrade the functionality of its Korean version of Bard to include image search in the near future. This aligns with the upcoming next-generation search chatbot service “Cue:” by Naver Corp.

Yossi Matias, vice president of Engineering & Research at Google, said that AI is not a zero-sum game and that the more actors involved, the more value and opportunities are created. He emphasized on collaboration.

Naver is planning to release its own LLM, “HyperCLOVA X,” next month.

“Google’s efforts to establish a strong network with the Ministry of Science and ICT could potentially be perceived as a threat to our information technology (IT) companies,” said an industry insider. “Naver, in particular, cannot ignore Google’s aggressive moves, given that it is leading the way for the country’s AI sovereignty.”