Demis Hassabis, the Nobel chemistry laureate and CEO of Google DeepMind, will visit Korea at the end of this month.
Google Korea said on the 16th that CEO Hassabis will speak at the "Google for Korea 2026" event to be held in Seoul on the 29th of this month. The event was arranged to look at the trend of AI technology spreading beyond the research stage into industry and everyday life, marking the 10th anniversary of the 2016 match between 9-dan Lee Sedol and Google DeepMind's artificial intelligence (AI) "AlphaGo."
It was reported that this will be CEO Hassabis' first visit to Korea in 10 years since the 2016 "AlphaGo match."
In 2016, AlphaGo faced 9-dan Lee Sedol and recorded four wins and one loss. Last month, CEO Hassabis said the achievements of that match "became the starting gun heralding the dawn of today's AI era," and declared that Gemini and AlphaGo will open the era of artificial general intelligence (AGI). Pointing to move 37 in game two as the moment symbolizing the match, he said, "Through the now-legendary single move, 'move 37,' AlphaGo proved AI's immense potential."
CEO Hassabis is also expected to hold a conversation with 9-dan Lee Sedol during the visit.
At the Google for Korea event, global AI experts and major domestic speakers will participate to look back on the past decade of AI and explore the future direction that Korea and the world should pursue. In particular, discussions are expected on the tangible changes AI technology is creating in various fields, including Robotics and education. Yoon Goo, president of Google Korea, will give a presentation on the theme of "a decade-long AI journey and partnerships to expand the domestic AI ecosystem."