The advance of artificial intelligence technologies such as large language models (LLMs) and autonomous agents is spreading fake news that is more lethal and sophisticated. Voices are growing within and outside the science and technology community that Korea must also secure sovereign AI technology to respond, alongside cross-national policy cooperation.
Cha Meeyoung (pictured), director of the research group at the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy in Germany, who delivered the keynote speech at this year's Korean scientists and engineers conference, expressed the same view.
Cha, who met with Korean media at the Korea Science and Technology Center in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on Monday, said, "Policy and science must respond together to prevent cutting-edge AI from manipulating public opinion or exerting malicious influence on social decision-making."
Cha, a professor at the School of Electrical Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), was appointed in 2024 as the first Korean research group leader at Germany's Max Planck Institute, often called a "Nobel Prize academy," in recognition of her work analyzing social problems such as fake news during the COVID-19 period, poverty, and environmental pollution using big data-based AI. Now leading the "Data Science for Humanity" research group, she also delivered a keynote speech on the same topic at the event that day.
Cha diagnosed that because recently rapidly advanced AI has changed the fake news ecosystem itself, technological and policy approaches must also change. This is because, in a situation where AI disguised as humans creates thousands of fake accounts and operates in an organized manner, the after-the-fact response method in which human "fact-checkers" individually determine whether information is false is no longer effective.
Cha said, "In the past, fake news was generated through networks between 'people,' such as on social media, whereas now AI intervenes directly, making it difficult to track and analyze the spread the way we used to." She also stressed, "The algorithm through which biased or false information is injected while each individual converses with AI is also difficult to identify at the researcher level," adding, "Going forward, 'mechanistic interpretability' research that looks inside the AI's black box will become important to solve this."
Assessments also followed that Korea's regulatory level is insufficient compared to the speed and influence of fake news spread. As the amendment to the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization, known as the "Act to Eradicate False and Manipulated Information," took effect that day, Cha said, "Punishment for spreading false information and defamation is still at a slap-on-the-wrist level," and "more responsibility must be placed on all responsible stakeholders, including platforms." In particular, she believed that policy regulation of global platforms and AI development companies must be strengthened. She said, "There is a need to require them to provide at least minimum benchmarks (to public institutions and researchers) so that it is possible to understand how information is exchanged between AI and individuals."
Cha emphasized the importance of sovereign AI in this process. Cha said, "To respond to the malicious use of AI, it is essential to provide researchers with access rights to cutting-edge AI models," and "Taking a lesson from the recent incident in which Anthropic blocked access to 'Mythos 5' and 'Fable 5,' Korea must also speed up AI model development at the national level and secure core technologies such as sovereign AI."
Cha then said, "Compared to Europe, where innovation is difficult to produce culturally and administratively, I think Korea's aggressive and fast-paced research culture is a particularly advantageous structure for developing sovereign AI." On the other hand, she also noted that "a long-term and stable research support system is something Korea can learn from Europe." She said, "The greatest strength of the Max Planck Institute is long-horizon research funding. Because there is no worry about applying for a budget every year or having it cut, researchers deeply consider what research topics will be meaningful even more than a decade from now."
Finally, she stressed, "Cutting-edge AI, which is currently developing with a focus on profit models and short-term rewards, is deepening polarization," and "the more this is the case, the more we must ask fundamental questions about how AI can contribute to the happiness of 'all humanity' rather than 'a few.'" She advised, "We must design research and policy on AI with long-term rewards in mind, ones whose results can emerge even for future generations."
