SEOUL (ANN/THE KOREA HERALD) – On Thursday, President Yoon Suk Yeol engaged in talks with Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, formerly Facebook, focusing on avenues to bolster collaboration in cutting-edge technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, at the request of the US tech giant.
The presidential office verified that Yoon and Zuckerberg convened at the Yongsan presidential office earlier in the day.
During their discussion, they exchanged visions for cultivating an AI digital ecosystem and explored methods to enhance cooperation between Meta and Korean enterprises. Additionally, they underscored Meta’s pivotal role as a global platform in fostering a dependable digital society.
After the 30-minute meeting, Sung Tae-yoon, presidential chief of staff for policy, told reporters the president stressed to the US tech giant chief that Korea could be an “excellent platform” where Meta’s AI could be applied since it has a diverse portfolio of smart home appliances, wearable devices, and smart cars that are recognised for their high technology and quality globally.
“As AI competition has intensified in the global market and global big tech companies are putting their lives at risk to secure AI semiconductors, the president asked (Zuckerberg) to cooperate closely with Korean companies that have the world’s best competitiveness, including the world’s No 1 and 2 players in the memory that are essential for AI systems,” Sung said.
Yoon also expressed his intention to actively support cooperation between Korean companies and the US at the government level, if necessary, citing a close supply chain cooperation system set up between the two countries.
Regarding the US tech giant’s metaverse push, the president expressed hope in cooperation on research and development and talent training to create a metaverse ecosystem, while mentioning that Korea is also continuing to provide support to foster the metaverse industry as it creates new added value beyond constraints of time and space.
“The president said a great synergy would be created if Meta cooperated with Korean companies with strengths in the extended reality headsets sector, which are emerging as an important hardware platform for the metaverse. … He also said that the Korean industry is ready to actively support what Meta has imagined and designed,” Sung said.
Talking about an increasing volume of fake news and false propaganda using AI, a serious problem that threatens liberal democracy, Yoon asked the tech mogul to play an active role in prevention. In response, Zuckerberg reportedly said that Meta is making active efforts to prevent election fraud and is open to collaborating with Korea’s National Election Commission to stop the spread of fake information.
Additionally, the Meta founder has reportedly pointed out Samsung Electronics’ global competitiveness in foundry raises the importance of its partnership with the Korean tech giant, according to another official at the presidential office. He made those remarks to talk about the high dependence on Taiwanese chip giant TSMC in highly volatile situations.
“(The president said) Regarding investment near Seoul to create an ecosystem for investment in Samsung Electronics’ AI semiconductors and system semiconductors, government support is already being provided for areas in which Samsung can invest,” the presidential official added.
Thursday’s meeting marks the second time that Zuckerberg has met a Korean president in Korea. He had a meeting with former President Park Geun-hye during his first official visit to the country in 2013. He arrived in Seoul on Tuesday as part of his Asian tour.
On Wednesday, Zuckerberg met with business leaders here, including Samsung Electronics Chair Lee Jae-yong and LG Electronics CEO Cho Joo-wan, separately, according to each company.
The Meta CEO met with Samsung chief in the evening for a dinner in Seungjiwon in Hannam-dong, central Seoul, potentially to discuss collaboration in AI chip development and XR business. The two leaders officially met in Korea in 2013 and 2014. Seungjiwon was often used as the office of Lee Kun-hee, the late chairman and father of Lee Jae-yong.
Zuckerberg had a luncheon with LG chief at the tech giant’s headquarters in western Seoul for the first time in person. They talked about the joint development of a mixed reality device and generative AI business cooperation. Cho hinted that their first collaboration device will likely come out in 2025.
