South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT held a launch ceremony for an "Artificial Intelligence (AI) Social Policy Forum" on April 27 at the Grace Hall of the aT Center in Seoul's Yangjae district, together with the Korea Information Society Development Institute (KISDI) and the National Information Society Agency (NIA).

The ministry said it planned the forum this year, which marks the 10th anniversary of the match between AlphaGo and 9-dan Lee Sedol, to respond to changes AI is bringing across society.

Professor Lee Sang-wook (이상욱) of Hanyang University’s Department of Philosophy will chair the forum. A total of 42 experts from AI and major academia, industry, civic groups and the public sector will take part as members. The forum will have three subcommittees: technology and norms; co-prosperity and innovation; and society and trust.

The forum will finalise the agenda for each subcommittee. To make the results public, it will gather opinions from the National Assembly, relevant ministries and the general public, among others, and present policy response measures.

The launch ceremony opened with a retrospective video looking back on the 10th anniversary of AlphaGo. It also shared the forum’s operating plan by Jeong-wook Moon (문정욱), head of KISDI's AI Policy Research Division. Min-gi Kim (김민기), a professor at KAIST Graduate School of Management, and Eun-joo Lee (이은주), a professor in the Department of Communication at Seoul National University, delivered presentations related to AI.

Bae Kyung-hoon (배경훈), deputy prime minister and minister of science and ICT, who attended the ceremony, said industrial structures and social order systems are rapidly changing due to AI. He said he hopes the AI social policy forum will serve as a compass for a better future for society 10 years from now.

Professor Lee, the forum chair, said he would serve as a bridge by turning issues discussed through the forum into the language of social consensus and delivering them to society as a whole.