Science ministry sets Oct. 14 hearing for global AI hub site

The science ministry said Wednesday it will hold a public hearing on Oct. 14 to set out how South Korea will select the site of a proposed global AI hub, a multilateral cooperation base intended to concentrate the artificial intelligence work of international organizations.

The hearing will take place at 10 a.m. at the international conference hall of the Government Sejong Convention Center in Sejong. It will cover the site selection criteria and evaluation procedures, the schedule ahead and draft guidelines for how local governments should prepare and submit their applications, and officials will answer questions from regional governments and the floor.

Local governments and institutions that want to attend must register in advance by Oct. 9 using the QR code on the poster for the event.

The hub is meant to be an open international campus where government, international organizations, development banks, industry, academia and research institutes work together. Staff dispatched from international organizations would be stationed there and would work with domestic and overseas partners on policy and standards to help developing countries adopt AI, share AI resources such as data, models and test cases, develop and spread AI solutions to global problems, and run AI education and training.

Seoul is aiming to open the hub in 2027. The basic plan for choosing a site was discussed on Sept. 21 at a meeting of the global AI hub promotion committee chaired by the prime minister, and the hearing is a follow-up step. After collecting views at the hearing, the support team will revise the evaluation criteria and the draft guidelines, publish a call for candidate sites later in October, and confirm the final location after evaluation and on-site inspections.

Prime Minister Han Sung-sook framed the project as a platform for cooperation. "The global AI hub is a focal point and a cooperation platform for realizing a human-centered 'global AI basic society' in which all humanity shares the benefits of AI development," she said.

The hub's backers were enlisted on May 21, when South Korea held a vision declaration for the project with nine international organizations — the International Organization for Migration, the International Telecommunication Union, the International Labor Organization, the United Nations Development Programme, the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations Children's Fund and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees — and five multilateral development banks: the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration. The participants issued a joint statement adopting the vision "AI for All, AI to Solve Global Challenges."