AI Seoul Summit focuses on safety

Google, Meta among companies that vowed to shut down systems if they can’t rein in risks

- HYUNG-JIN KIM AND KELVIN CHAN

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during the virtual AI Seoul Summit at the Blue House in Seoul on Tuesday. World leaders have agreed to build a network of publicly backed safety institutes to advance research and testing of the technology.

SEOUL Leading artificial intelligence companies made a fresh pledge at a mini-summit Tuesday to develop AI safely, while world leaders agreed to build a network of publicly backed safety institutes to advance research and testing of the technology.

Google, Meta and OpenAI were among the companies that made voluntary safety commitments at the AI Seoul Summit, including pulling the plug on their cutting-edge systems if they can’t rein in the most extreme risks.

The two-day meeting is a followup to November’s AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park in the United Kingdom, and comes amid a flurry of efforts by governments and global bodies to design guardrails for the technology amid fears about the potential risk it poses both to everyday life and to humanity.