South Korea and Google have agreed to build an artificial-intelligence campus in Seoul to develop cooperation between the tech firm and ​local engineers and startups, Kim Yong-beom, a presidential policy adviser, said ‌this week.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung met with Google DeepMind Chief Executive Officer Demis Hassabis in Seoul, with the Science Ministry and the company ​signing a memorandum of understanding on the campus, Kim said.

The following ​are some details on the meetings and planned campus.

  • South Korea ⁠requested Google send at least 10 engineers to the AI campus ​from Google’s headquarters in the United States and Hassabis said he would consider ​that, Kim said.
  • The Google AI campus will be the first of its kind in the world for the US company, the presidential adviser said.
  • President Lee and Hassabis shared ​their thoughts about the outlook for AI and its impact on ​people, Kim said.
  • Lee raised the need for the introduction of a base wage in case ‌of ⁠job losses caused by AI at the meeting.
  • Hassabis said he hoped with this partnership “to help with training up the next generation in these amazing technologies through internships at our AI hub and other training programmes.”
  • DeepMind would ​like to deepen ​partnerships with Korean ⁠companies from Samsung and SK Hynix (000660.KS) to Hyundai’s Boston Dynamics and LG and “instigate new joint projects” with them, ​Hassabis said.
  • He described South Korea as a “great industrial base” ​in all ⁠of the key AI areas, from chips to robotics.
  • The historic match between DeepMind’s AlphaGo program and Go player Lee Sedol in Korea a decade ago ⁠signaled the ​beginning of the modern AI era and ​inspired many advances in AI, including its work in science like the Alphafold system for ​protein folding, Hassabis said.