Yonsei University has been selected for OpenAI's global research program on how to harness artificial intelligence, becoming the only Korean institution chosen.
OpenAI said on the 18th that it had launched the research program, focused on securing economic opportunity and strengthening social resilience amid AI's advance, and had selected 14 projects across South Korea, the United States, Europe, Brazil and Singapore. The program provides a total of $1 million (about 1.4 billion won) in research funding along with up to $1 million worth of subscriptions to OpenAI's application programming interface (API).
The 14 selected projects fall into two broad themes: AI's economic opportunity and AI's social resilience. In the economic opportunity area, researchers will study how the productivity gains and economic benefits that AI brings can be shared widely among workers, businesses and regions. In the social resilience area, they will examine AI safety, information sharing between countries and the responsible use of AI in public policy.
Yonsei University, the sole domestic participant in the program, will carry out a project titled "Democratic Accountability Using AI." The university will use AI to analyze materials such as National Assembly records to assess how faithfully the legislature checks and oversees the government. It also plans to conduct the research in a way that allows multiple researchers to independently verify the analysis results.
The program is a follow-up to OpenAI's "Industrial Policy for the Age of Intelligence," which the company released in June this year. At the time, OpenAI said it would support research that tests policy ideas from outside organizations and develops new alternatives. The aim of the program is to respond to technological change and devise new ways of using AI. The selected projects will run for six months, with results scheduled to be released next year.
Lee Sang-hyun, head of OpenAI's Asia-Pacific external affairs, said, "We hope the findings from this research will help governments and societies around the world design policies suited to their local environments and broaden public debate on economic opportunity and social resilience in the age of AI."
