Naver to attend AI Safety Summit in UK this week

Ha Jung-woo, head of Naver’s AI Innovation Center.

Platform giant Naver Corp. will represent South Korea at the upcoming AI Safety Summit, along with Samsung Electronics Co. and the Ministry of Science and ICT.

The summit – organized by the UK government – will be held on Nov. 1 and 2 at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, the historic site where Alan Turing developed his code-breaking computer.

“Naver has been focusing on creating safe AI that considers Korean realities,” said Ha Jung-woo, head of Naver’s AI Innovation Center. “The invitation means that Naver has been recognized for its global-level AI technology and ethical capabilities.”

Minister Lee Jong-ho from the Ministry of Science and ICT and Paul (Kyung-whoon) Cheun, corporate president & chief technology officer (CTO) of Device eXperience (DX) Division and head of Samsung Research at Samsung Electronics, will also attend the summit.

They will join high-ranking government officials from G7 countries, including the United States, Japan, Germany, the UK, France, Germany, Canada, and Italy, as well as prominent figures from AI companies.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, U.S. Vice President Carmela Harris, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Alphabet DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis will also join the event.

In a panel discussion, participants will discuss the risks posed by AI and the need for action, options for international cooperation, and AI safety for individual companies.

“I will speak out so that Korea can play a leading role in the global AI safety discussion,” Ha said.

The meeting was organized amid growing concerns about the prospect of self-acting artificial general intelligence (AGI), which is equally capable as an average human and military AI.

AI will bring new knowledge, like the advent of electricity and the birth of the internet, according to UK Prime Minister Sunak. But it is also being used by terrorists, and for cyberattacks, fraud, and child sexual abuse, so it is time for leaders to act and take responsibility, he added.

The U.S. launched the Frontier Model Forum in July to help ensure the safety of AI models. China is also reportedly interested in joining the talks.