Seoul's new AI ‘flags, requests removal of sexually abusive content in 6 minutes'
The AI-powered system will reduce the process time from an average of almost three hours to just six minutes. PHOTO: THE NEW PAPER
SEOUL - The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on May 21 that it had developed South Korea's first AI-powered system that automatically monitors, detects, reports and requests the removal of sexually exploitative content online within minutes.
The city government plans to introduce the AI tool, which it says will reduce the time required from initial monitoring to filing deletion requests to just six minutes.
Previously, the entire process took an average of almost three hours, as authorities had to manually locate illegal videos circulating on social media platforms, online communities and illicit websites, and then file deletion requests with the respective sites.
Since 2023, the city government has worked with the Seoul Institute to monitor sexually exploitative content on social media websites, online communities and the dark web with AI, but the system wasn't able to do more than monitor.
However, the newly developed AI tool is able to generate a report of its findings, after which the system automatically drafts an email requesting that the website operators delete the content.
The email and report are then checked by an official in charge before it is sent to the website operators.
Additionally, amid an increasing number of cases where sexually exploitative videos are uploaded to foreign servers, the city government added that it will also be able to monitor content posted overseas.
The email sent to website operators can also be drafted in up to seven languages, such as English, Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Vietnamese.
The city government's support centre for digital sex crime victims provides 'one-stop support' for victims, as it helps not only to remove sexually exploitative content but also provides investigative and legal support, psychological therapy and medical assistance for the victims.
According to numbers provided by the city government, the center has received reports filed by up to 3,650 people between 2022 and March 2025 and has helped handle 64,677 cases.
The majority of the victims were in their teens and 20s, with a significant increase in digital sex crime victims among children and teenagers over the last few years.
The center recorded as many as 50 such cases in 2022, a number that increased to 624 in 2024. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Times
2 hours ago
- Business Times
France's Mistral launches Europe's first AI reasoning model
[PARIS] Mistral on Tuesday launched Europe's first AI reasoning model, which uses logical thinking to create a response, as it tries to keep pace with American and Chinese rivals at the forefront of AI development. The French startup has attempted to differentiate itself by championing its European roots, winning the support of French President Emmanuel Macron, as well as making some of its models open source in contrast to the proprietary offerings of OpenAI or Alphabet's Google. Mistral is considered Europe's best shot at having a home-grown AI competitor, but has lagged behind in terms of market share and revenue. Reasoning models use chain-of-thought techniques - a process that generates answers with intermediate reasoning abilities when solving complex problems. They could also be a promising path forward in advancing AI's capabilities as the traditional approach of building ever-bigger large language models by adding more data and computing power begins to hit limitations. For Mistral, which was valued by venture capitalists at US$6.2 billion, an industry shift away from 'scaling up' could give it a window to catch up against better capitalisdaed rivals. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up China's DeepSeek broke through as a viable competitor in January through its low-cost, open-sourced AI models, including one for reasoning. OpenAI was the first to launch its reasoning models last year, followed by Google a few months later. Meta, which also offers its models open-sourced, has not yet released a standalone reasoning model, though it said its latest top-shelf model has reasoning capabilities. Mistral is launching an open-sourced Magistral Small model and a more powerful version called Magistral Medium for business customers. 'The best human thinking isn't linear - it weaves through logic, insight, uncertainty, and discovery. Reasoning language models have enabled us to augment and delegate complex thinking and deep understanding to AI,' Mistral said. American companies have mostly kept their most advanced models proprietary, though a handful, such as Meta, has released open-source models. In contrast, Chinese firms ranging from DeepSeek to Alibaba have taken the open-source path to demonstrate their technological capabilities. Mistral Small is available for download on Hugging Face's platform and can reason in languages including English, French, Spanish, Arabic and simplified Chinese. REUTERS
Straits Times
12 hours ago
- Straits Times
Uber to launch driverless taxis in London in 2026
Companies including Uber will be allowed to trial commercial driverless services without a human presence for the first time in the UK. PHOTO: REUTERS LONDON - Ride-hailing firm Uber will launch self-driving taxis in London in 2026 when England trials new driverless services, the firm and the UK government said on June 10 . Under the Uber pilot scheme, services will initially have a human in the driver's seat who can take control of the vehicle in an emergency, but the trials will eventually transition to being fully driverless. The government announcement will see companies including Uber allowed to trial commercial driverless services without a human presence for the first time in the United Kingdom. They will include taxis and 'bus-like' services. Uber CEO Andrew Macdonald described London's roads as 'one of the world's busiest and most complex urban environments'. 'Our vision is to make autonomy a safe and reliable option for riders everywhere, and this trial in London brings that future closer to reality,' he said. Members of the public will be able to book the transport via an app from spring 2026, ahead of a potential wider rollout when new legislation – the Automated Vehicles Act – becomes law from the second half of 2027, the Department for Transport added. The technology could create 38,000 jobs, add £42 billion (S$73 billion) to the UK economy by 2025, and make roads safer, it said. 'The future of transport is arriving. Self-driving cars could bring jobs, investment, and the opportunity for the UK to be among the world-leaders in new technology,' Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said. 'We can't afford to take a back seat on AI ... That's why we're bringing timelines forward today,' added Technology Secretary Peter Kyle. The wider roll-out will also allow the sale and use of self-driving, private cars. Driverless vehicle trials have been underway in the UK since January 2015, with British companies Wayve and Oxa 'spearheading significant breakthroughs in the technology', the ministry said. 'These early pilots will help build public trust and unlock new jobs, services, and markets,' said Wayve CEO Alex Kendall. According to the government the forthcoming legislation will require self-driving vehicles to 'achieve a level of safety at least as high as competent and careful human drivers'. 'By having faster reaction times than humans, and by being trained on large numbers of driving scenarios, including learning from real-world incidents, self-driving vehicles can help reduce deaths and injuries,' it said. Driverless taxis with limited capacity are already on the roads in the United States and China, most notably in the central Chinese city of Wuhan where a fleet of over 500 can be hailed by app in designated areas. AFP Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Business Times
12 hours ago
- Business Times
Tencent Music to buy Chinese audio platform Ximalaya for US$2.4 billion
[BEIJING] Chinese music platform Tencent Music Entertainment Group said on Tuesday (Jun 10) it would buy long-form audio platform Ximalaya for about US$2.4 billion in cash and stock, expanding its library of content to attract more paying users. US-listed shares of Tencent rose 7 per cent in premarket trading. The company will offer US$1.26 billion in cash and Class A shares representing up to 5.20 per cent of its total outstanding stock. It will also issue shares to Ximalaya's founder investors not exceeding 0.37 per cent of its total share count. The stock component of the deal totals about US$1.15 billion based on Tencent Music's last closing price on April 24. Closely held Ximalaya counts Tencent, Baidu and Sony Group's music entertainment unit as backers. The company filed for a Hong Kong initial public offering in 2021, but pushed back the plan. The app-based online audio platform had 303 million monthly active users as of 2023, according to a separate listing application it filed last year. Tencent Music is one of the biggest online music entertainment platforms in China, with apps such as QQ Music, Kugou, Kuwo and WeSing, according to its website. REUTERS, BLOOMBERG
