Seoul government, British Embassy in Seoul to cooperate for upcoming 5th SBAU
From left: British Ambassador Colin Crooks, Seoul Vice Mayor Kim Seong-bo, and Thomas Heatherwick, general director of the 5th Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, sign letters of intent for cultural exchange of architecture and urbanism between the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Embassy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the British Embassy in Seoul on Thursday. (Seoul Metropolitan Government )
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Korea Herald
3 days ago
- Korea Herald
Seoul government, British Embassy in Seoul to cooperate for upcoming 5th SBAU
From left: British Ambassador Colin Crooks, Seoul Vice Mayor Kim Seong-bo, and Thomas Heatherwick, general director of the 5th Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, sign letters of intent for cultural exchange of architecture and urbanism between the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Embassy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the British Embassy in Seoul on Thursday. (Seoul Metropolitan Government )
Korea Herald
27-05-2025
- Korea Herald
Korea is building an AI workforce, but not the citizenry: global AI governance adviser
South Korea is investing heavily in AI. The Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to train 10,000 AI professionals annually. Major companies like Microsoft and Intel are backing education programs. But what if all this is missing the point? 'Korea is doing what every ambitious country does when a new technology arrives: it's training specialists,' said Vilas Dhar, president of the $1.5 billion Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, in an interview with The Korea Herald. 'But building an AI future isn't just about specialists. It should also be about citizens.' Dhar, in Seoul for the 2025 Asian Leadership Conference on May 21-22, leads one of the world's largest philanthropic institutions focused on AI and digital equity. With a background in both computer science and law, he advises major global bodies including the United Nations, the OECD, and Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. As South Korea heads into a presidential election on June 3, both major parties are competing over bold visions for AI development. The Democratic Party has pledged a massive 100 trillion won (about $73 billion) investment while People Power Party has promised to train 200,000 young AI professionals. Both aim to position South Korea among the world's top three leaders in AI. But these plans, Dhar argues, reflect a familiar, and potentially dangerous, pattern seen in many countries: rapid investment in AI infrastructure and workforce development, with little attention paid to how the general public understands and engages with these powerful technologies. During his visit here, he met with Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon and discussed some of the capital's recent AI initiatives, including the expansion of the 'Seoul Software Academy.' The program now offers short-term training in AI coding and data skills at 20 campuses across the city. Just last month, Seoul added 45 new AI-related courses, touting a 76 percent job placement rate in 2024. While efficient, Dhar pointed out that the focus remains overwhelmingly technical. 'Training someone to code is useful,' he said. 'But what happens when AI coding also gets replaced in 10 years? More importantly, what happens when that same person is later asked to decide whether an AI system should be used to allocate welfare or predict crime? Do they have the context? Do they know how to ask whether it's fair or biased?' Dhar sees a crucial distinction between 'AI skilling' and 'AI fluency.' The first, he says, is about teaching people how to build AI systems. The second is about equipping people to live with them, which is about understanding what these systems do, how they affect daily life, and how to hold them accountable. When asked what real leadership on AI education looks like, Vilas Dhar referenced the US. In April this year, President Donald Trump launched a national initiative to introduce AI education across schools and workforce programs, with a White House task force coordinating efforts between educators, industry, and government. 'It's not perfect,' Dhar said, 'but it shows a willingness to ask, 'how do ordinary people learn to live with AI, not just build it'?' He doesn't underestimate the challenge. 'Sometimes, elected officials don't fully understand the systems they're deploying, which is understandable.' he said. 'But that's also exactly why we need public institutions that make AI legible and accountable to ordinary people.' Otherwise, the gap between those who build AI and those who live under it will keep growing. 'The most advanced AI society won't be the one that codes the fastest. It'll be the one where ordinary people know what AI is, what it isn't, and how to live alongside it.' mjh@
Korea Herald
27-05-2025
- Korea Herald
'Just joking': Macron denies dispute with wife
HANOI (AFP) — French President Emmanuel Macron denied Monday having a domestic dispute with his wife Brigitte after a video appeared to show her shoving his face away when they touched down for a visit to Vietnam, blaming disinformation campaigns for trying to put false meaning on the footage. The Elysee had been hoping that the visit to Vietnam would showcase France's reach into the Indo-Pacific, but it has been shadowed by the incident, which occurred as the doors of the presidential plane swung open after landing in Hanoi Sunday. This is the third time this month that Macron has been the subject of viral video footage at a time when France says it is being targeted by repeated disinformation campaigns as Russia steps up attacks on Ukraine. It was falsely claimed Macron took cocaine on a trip to Kyiv alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and images also emerged purporting to show Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dominate the French leader in a handshake. In Hanoi, Brigitte sticks out both her hands and gives her husband's face a shove, according to footage shot by the Associated Press news agency. The French president appears startled but quickly recovers and turns to wave through the open door. But with most of her body hidden by the aircraft, it is impossible to see his wife's facial expression or body language. "My wife and I were squabbling, we were rather joking, and I was taken by surprise," he said. Now it's "become a kind of planetary catastrophe, and some are even coming up with theories," Macron told reporters. Macron testily referred to the other incidents, including the images shot on the train to Kyiv where some accounts falsely claimed he shared cocaine. But the object Macron removed from the table when the media entered was a tissue. Erdogan, meanwhile, was filmed holding the president's finger at a summit. "None of these are true," Macron said of the videos. "Everyone needs to calm down," he added. After the incident in Hanoi, the couple proceeded down the staircase for the official welcome by Vietnamese officials, though Brigitte Macron did not take her husband's arm when he offered it. The video circulated online, promoted particularly by accounts that are habitually hostile to the French leader. Macron's office initially denied the authenticity of the images, evoking the possible use of artificial intelligence, before they were confirmed as genuine and Macron responded. "In these three videos I took a tissue, shook someone's hand and just joked with my wife, as we do quite often. Nothing more," Macron said. He blamed manipulations on "networks that are quite well-traceable," specifically pointing the finger at "the Russians" and "the extremists in France." He emphasized that all three videos were "completely authentic" but the meanings attached to them were not. Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who had actively promoted the cocaine disinformation earlier this month, wrote on Telegram that Macron had received "a right hook from his wife." She said Macron's advisers would try to explain away the gesture by blaming Russia. "Maybe it was the 'hand of the Kremlin?'" she said, with heavy sarcasm. Vietnam is the first stop on Macron's tour of Southeast Asia where he will pitch France as a reliable alternative to the United States and China. He will also visit Indonesia and Singapore. The relationship between Macron, 47, and his 72-year-old wife has long been a subject of fascination at home and abroad. She was a drama teacher and he a pupil when they met at a private school in their hometown of Amiens in northeast France. A mother of three children, Brigitte divorced her husband and began a relationship with Macron while he was in his late teens. A high-profile first lady, she has taken legal action to counter false claims on social media about her gender.
