OpenAI said on Sunday it will take part as a partner in the CMK Social Welfare Innovation Leader Academy, jointly promoted by the Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-Koo Foundation, Seoul National University’s Social Welfare Research Institute and the Ministry of Health and Welfare. It will provide AI agent-based, problem-solving training.

The academy is a talent development programme hosted by the Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-Koo Foundation and organised by Seoul National University’s Social Innovation Impact Lab. It was set up to select young social welfare researchers and field practitioners with potential to grow into next-generation leaders and to build capabilities to respond to new social problems in the AI era.

The participants comprise 30 people, including university students in their third year or above and graduate students majoring in social welfare, as well as core field talent aged 34 or younger with at least 3 years of experience.

The curriculum includes policy design to address new social risks such as the rise in one-person households, space-based prescriptions to solve social problems, mental health and integrated care, advocacy of legal rights in everyday life, and innovation in social welfare work using AI.

OpenAI will hold a hands-on hackathon on July 25 to structure social problems and draw out solutions using ChatGPT and Codex.

Ko Gi-seok (고기석), head of policy at OpenAI Korea, said AI can be a tool to reduce the administrative burden in the social welfare field and help practitioners focus on their core work of caring for people. He said he hopes participants will build capabilities to use AI to solve problems in the field.

OpenAI said it plans to work with the government, academia and non-profit organisations to support AI in contributing to solving social problems.