French government and Open Net host Artificial Intelligence Debate on Taiwan, France, and South Korea and discuss AI Digital Text books

Background: AI Regional Debate

Since 2023, the French Office in Taipei, the French Institute in Japan, and the cultural service of the Embassy of France in Korea are collaborating on a multi-year program dedicated to AI issues.

This multi-year project has received support from the French Institute in Paris for 2024 and 2025 and is constituted of a series of workshops bringing together experts from the three countries and French experts on issues related to AI and its effects on citizenship (education, digital democracy, misinformation).

The first workshop, focusing on the informational challenges of AI, took place on April 2, 2024, under the responsibility of the Taiwanese partner DSET. Professor You-Hao LAI (Non-resident Fellow at the Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET) wrote an article untitled “Addressing ai-generated disinformation threats to democracy”, from which was built the debate. The synthesis of the discussions was published in mid-June in the magazine Usbek and Rica.

A second workshop focusing on the ethical challenges of AI took place on June 18, 2024. The core of this second workshop was the article of the French expert Mrs Vanessa Nurock (Professor of philosophy at Côte d’Azur University and Deputy Director of the Center for Research in the History of Ideas (CRHI): “Dare to think” education for democracy with AI.

Aside from these workshops, the Cultural Service of the French Embassy in the Republic of Korea organizes an in-person seminar at the Library of the National Assembly (Seoul, Korea) focusing on IA and education, on the 22^nd of October, 2024.  Open Net’s Executive Director K.S. Park will be the host of the debate.

IA and Education conference – 22^nd, October

In 2023, the Korean government announced that by 2025, IA will be actively integrated at school via the AI digital text book. Within this perspective, this event gathering experts and political stakeholders will tackle political, technological and social issues. The goal is to bring the debate within the institutional and political sphere, as well as federate social society, scientific researchers, and economic as well as political stakeholders interested by IA.

English-korean simultaneous interpretation

• 3 pm: welcoming by :
  • Mr. Won-Shik WOO, President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea (TBC)
  • Mr.. Philippe BERTOUX, French Ambassador in the Republic of Korea
  • Mr. Myeong-Wu LEE, Director, Library of the National Assembly
  • Ms. Inseon Lee, deputy responsible of the research for the Forum about AI at the National Assembly

• 3.20pm-3.50pm:
  • Introducing Talk by M. Seung-lae Jo, deputy responsible of the research for the Forum about IA at the National Assembly
  • Introducing Talk by Ms. Anne Bouverot, Special Envoy of the French President to the AI Action Summit, Office of the President of the Republic of France (online)

3.50 to 4.50pm: Conference 1 / Governance of IA and Education

Summary:  each expert will successively sum up the governance system in his country: Korea, France, and Taiwan. Moderator: M. KS PARK, Law professor at Korea University and director of Open Net Korea

• AI in Education in Taiwan, Mr. Huang Kai Shen, Fellow Researcher and Lead of research Unit on Democratic Governance at the Research Institute for democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET, Taiwan)
• AI Governance in France, Mr. Bruno GALMAR, Associate professor, French Department, at Central National University (Zhongli, Taiwan)

• Critique of AI Digital Textbooks in South Korea, Mrs Jungmin KWON, Professor, Seoul National University of Education

5.05 to 6.05 pm: Conference 2 / Ethics issues about the future of IA in Education

Summary: Based on the first conference, the second conference will be a dialogue about the future role of AI in education, and the potential ethical implications it might have.

• LG AI Research’s Approach and Beyond, M. Myoungshin KIM, Principal Policy Officer, LG AI Research

• Mr. Bruno GALMAR, Associate professor, French Department, at Central National University (Zhongli, Taiwan)

• 6.05-6.15 pm: conclusion par M. KS Park
• 6.15 ~  : Networking and diner at Woonsan restaurant (lien).

You can view the summaries of speaker input here.

Biographies

M. Won-Shik WOO (born in 1957) is the President of the 22nd National Assembly of the Republic of Korea (since june, 2024). He has been the deputy for the 17th, 19th, 20th, 21^st  et 22^nd legislature, having been elected five times. During the 20th legislature, he used to be the chief of the democratic party parliamentary group (Minjoo), from May 2017 until May 2018). He got a master’s degree in environmental engineering from Yonsei University.

M. Myeong Wu LEE (born in 1964) eis the president of the National Assembly since 2021. He graduated from western history department at The Seoul National University (SNU) and got a PHD in north Korean studies from Kyungnam University. He has been, among other : member of the comitee of the politics to the development of Korean peninsula, dean of the Ulsan Polytechnical University, invoted professor in politics, medias and security at Baejai University and chief of political affairs for the President of the National Assembly.  

M. Seung-lae JO is a deputy responsabible of the research for the AI Forum of the Natinal Assembly. This « parlementary forum about IA » aims at reinforcing the competitiveness of the korean IA industry. He got a master’s degree at the Peace and Security School at Chungnam National University. He used to be the deputy for the 20th, 21st et 22nd legislatures and was appointed spokesman fo the Democratic Party (Minjoo) in August 19^th 2024.

Mr. Kyung-sin “KS” PARK is a law professor at Korea University. He is also Executive Director of the PSPD Law Center, a non-profit entity that has launched and monitored several major lawsuits, mainly in the fields of freedom of expression, privacy and copyright. He is the founder and director of Opennet Korea, an NGO dedicated to promoting online freedom of expression, protection of intellectual property and privacy, net neutrality, and improving access to public data. Mr. PARK is also Director of the American Law Center. He holds a J.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles and a B.S. in physics from Harvard.

Mrs Jungmin KWON is a professor at the Seoul National University of Education, and an Early child and special Education Ph.D from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA). Focusing in her researches on the links between humanity and IA, she tackles IA concerns on her Youtube chanel and has published several articles .

M. Myoungshin KIM is currently a Principal Policy Officer at LG AI Research. He is also an IEEE CertifAIEd™Authorized Lead Assessor. Previously, he worked as a Senior Program Specialist at the Korean National Commission for UNESCO, where he was part of the South Korean delegation involved in the entire development process of the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI. Myoungshin has also served as an adjunct professor at Sungkyunkwan University and as a policy advisor for the Ministry of Unification and the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, Republic of Korea. His work and research interests lie at the intersection of AI, ethics, and policy. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business management, a master’s degree in international commerce, and a PhD in North Korean Studies.

Justine Cassell is SCS Dean’s Professor in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. She is currently on leave from CMU to hold the founding international chair at PRAIRIE Paris Institute on Interdisciplinary Research in AI (one of French President Macron’s four new AI Institutes), and hold the associated position of Directrice de Recherche at Inria Paris. In January 2021, Cassell was named a member of the 21 person French governmental committee CNNUM (Conseil National du Numérique) – the Council on the Future of Digital in France.

M. Bruno GALMAR holds both a French telecommunications engineering degree (2002) from Grenoble INP and a Ph.D. in educational sciences (2012) from National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Psychology at the University of Hong Kong. He works as an Associate Professor in the French Department at National Central University in Zhongli, Taiwan. He teaches artificial intelligence within his department. Finally, he is very active in Taiwan in promoting the rich history of French science.

Mrs Ikuko YAIRI is professor at the Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan. Since 2008, she is a member of engineering and computing department of the Sciences and engineering Faculty. She also forms part of several Japanese governmental committee, such as the telecommunication committee of the Interior and Communication Affairs Ministry. She focuses on learning models from human comportments and environmental datas. She graduated from mechanic engineering from the University of Tokyo in 1994, 1996 and 1999.

Dr. Kai-Shen Huang graduated from the University of Oxford and National Taiwan University, possessing interdisciplinary training in both anthropology and law. His research expertise includes China’s critical technology policies, the application of artificial intelligence in dispute resolution and public administration, and legal anthropology.