Yang Jong-hoon Seeks AI Ethics Solutions in Jeju's Traditions
Documentary photographer and Semyung University Chair Professor Yang Jong-hoon is exploring the harmony between technology and ethics by proposing the design of a 'Jeju-style AI Safe Zone' that utilizes Jeju's cultural symbols such as the 'sum-bi' sound and 'jeongnang' gates.
Professor Yang connects his darkroom experiences as a photographer to the ethical issues of the AI era. While dodging and burning to adjust light and shadow in the darkroom are permissible, distortion — creating what isn't there or erasing what is — is taboo for documentary photographers. Major global news agencies like AP and AFP also specify image manipulation as grounds for dismissal in the digital age. He diagnoses the reality of AI creating non-existent haenyeo faces, synthesizing nonexistent Jeju seascapes, and deepfake videos being consumed as entertainment as a collapse of humanity's ethical framework.
Professor Yang does not reject AI itself. He believes AI's ability to diagnose diseases, replace humans in dangerous situations, and analyze complex data is a blessing for humanity, arguing that when machines handle mechanical tasks, humans can immerse themselves in more humane pursuits. He emphasizes that the crucial point is not the replacement itself, but how the time after the replacement is filled.
The European Union (EU), through its 2024 AI Act, the world's first, has established citizens' human rights as its highest value. Finland, meanwhile, teaches children how to distinguish manipulated information through media literacy education starting in elementary school.
The core of the Jeju-style AI Safe Zone proposed by Professor Yang lies in traditional Jeju values. 'Jeongnang,' Jeju's traditional gate, uses three wooden bars to signal the homeowner's absence and return. Despite low walls and open gates, order is maintained through community trust. He argues that by adding the haenyeo's spirit of restraint — harvesting only what they can reach within their breath, rather than taking all abalone and conchs they see — a principle should be established that AI should not do everything just because it can.
Professor Yang urges the Jeju Special Self-Governing Province and the Jeju Provincial Office of Education to prioritize character education imbued with the Jeju spirit, rather than merely supplying devices. He stated that the Jeju-style AI Safe Zone should not be a prison to confine technology, but a bulwark that instills restraint in children's hearts and teaches the honesty of the jeongnang, much like the haenyeo's sum-bi sound.