SEOUL, April 27 - South Korea and Google will collaborate to build an artificial intelligence campus in Seoul designed to foster closer ties between the company and local engineers and startups, Kim Yong-beom, a presidential policy adviser, said on Monday.
The announcement came after a meeting in Seoul between President Lee Jae Myung and Demis Hassabis, chief executive officer of Google DeepMind. During the same day, the Science Ministry and the company executed a memorandum of understanding on the campus, Kim said.
The adviser set out several specifics from the discussions and the MoU:
- Seoul has asked Google to assign at least 10 engineers from the company's headquarters in the United States to work at the new AI campus. Hassabis said he would consider that request, according to Kim.
- The presidential adviser said the Google AI campus will be the first facility of its kind worldwide for the U.S. company.
- President Lee and Hassabis exchanged views on the future trajectory of AI and its consequences for people, Kim said.
- At the meeting, Lee raised the need to introduce a base wage to address potential job losses caused by AI.
- Hassabis said he hoped the partnership "to help with training up the next generation in these amazing technologies through internships at our AI hub and other training programmes."
- DeepMind expressed a desire to deepen collaborations with a range of Korean companies, from Samsung and SK Hynix to Hyundai's Boston Dynamics and LG, and to "instigate new joint projects" with them, Hassabis said.
- Hassabis described South Korea as a "great industrial base" across key AI-relevant areas, including chips and robotics.
- Hassabis also said the historic match between DeepMind's AlphaGo program and Go player Lee Sedol in Korea a decade ago signaled the beginning of the modern AI era and inspired many advances in AI, including DeepMind's Alphafold system for protein folding.
The details provided by the presidential office outline a mix of concrete proposals and aspirational goals: a formal MoU has been signed, Seoul has requested a specific minimum number of engineers from Google's U.S. operations, and DeepMind has articulated intentions to expand industrial partnerships and training programmes. The statements leave certain elements open-ended, for example the definitive staffing commitment from Google and the exact nature and timing of planned joint projects.
Separately, a promotional note included with the original briefing posed the question of investing $2,000 in GOOGL and described an AI-driven stock research tool called ProPicks AI that evaluates companies using over 100 financial metrics. That note stated the system looks beyond popularity to assess fundamentals, momentum and valuation, and cited past winners including Super Micro Computer (+185%) and AppLovin (+157%). The promotional material said the AI does not carry bias and identifies stocks based on current data.
This agreement represents a high-profile engagement between a leading AI firm and the South Korean government, combining governmental support, corporate interest and an expressed focus on workforce training and industrial collaboration.