The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) said the AI Safety Institute and OpenAI signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Wednesday to strengthen cooperation on AI safety in high-risk fields, at the Seoul office of the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI).
The MOU follows an agreement signed between MSIT and OpenAI last October, with the aim of expanding the cooperative framework to the field of AI safety. Earlier, MSIT Second Vice Minister Ryu Je-myung held two meetings with senior OpenAI officials this year to discuss AI safety measures.
Through the MOU, the AI Safety Institute and OpenAI plan to share knowledge and best practices on safety evaluation methodologies and benchmarks for each high-risk field, and to exchange technical information for developing an evaluation system that reflects the Korean language and Korea's social context.
This marks the fourth MOU OpenAI has signed with a national AI safety institute, following those in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan. Last month, OpenAI also announced it would grant the Korean government participation in the Government and Trusted Access Cooperation (GTAC) program—the third country in the world to receive such access—and provide access to its latest high-performance AI models.
As a result, some expect Korea's role to grow further in the process of establishing internationally applicable standards for risk verification and safety evaluation of frontier AI.
"As AI's impact on national core infrastructure and security grows, rigorous safety evaluation in high-risk fields is becoming not a choice but a necessity," said Kim Myuong-ju, director of the AI Safety Institute. "Through this agreement, the AI Safety Institute will work with OpenAI to scientifically verify the risks of frontier AI and contribute to building an internationally accepted evaluation system."
Lee Sang-hyun, OpenAI's head of policy for the Asia-Pacific region, said, "Korea is an important country where the use and innovation of AI technology is advancing rapidly, and the AI Safety Institute plays an important role in international discussions for responsible AI development." He added, "It is meaningful that, through this cooperation, we will share knowledge and best practices on AI safety evaluation in high-risk fields, and contribute together to developing trustworthy AI and creating a safe usage environment."
The AI Safety Institute and OpenAI plan to finalize specific cooperation tasks and schedules through working-level consultations going forward.
