Demis Hassabis Pursues Strengthened AI Cooperation in South Korea

Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, has been seeking to expand AI cooperation through a series of meetings with the heads of South Korea's four major business groups. This visit is seen as a move to advance cooperation with South Korea in the AI field and explore new opportunities.

On the 28th, Hassabis met with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong to discuss AI cooperation plans, focusing on semiconductors and mobile devices. Samsung Electronics supplies key AI semiconductors like HBM and has been expanding its collaboration by embedding Google's generative AI 'Gemini' into its 'Galaxy' smartphone series. Key Samsung Electronics executives, including Roh Tae-moon, head of the DX division, were present at the meeting.

Subsequently, he discussed AI-based autonomous driving and robot technology cooperation for fostering robotics and physical AI businesses with Chung Eui-sun, Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group. For lunch on the 28th, he met with Koo Kwang-mo, Chairman of LG Group, to discuss combining LG Electronics' smart home appliance ecosystem with DeepMind's AI technology. Ryu Jae-cheol, President of LG Electronics, and Lee Hong-rak, Co-Research Director at LG AI Research, were among those in attendance.

An evening meeting was scheduled with Chey Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group. SK Hynix is a major partner supplying HBM to Google, and discussions were expected to cover AI infrastructure development and semiconductor cooperation.

Hassabis had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Science and ICT the previous day. He explained the background of his visit, emphasizing that South Korea's manufacturing capabilities and hardware technology are essential for DeepMind's AI models to create value in the real world.

These consecutive meetings demonstrate Google DeepMind's strategic move to apply AI to actual industries and daily life. South Korea, a manufacturing powerhouse with global competitiveness in semiconductors, automotive, and home appliances, is considered an optimal partner for realizing DeepMind's AI technology into products. This is evaluated as a signal to accelerate the combination of AI technology powerhouses and manufacturing powerhouses like South Korea.