KAIST announced on Feb. 9 that it co-hosted the "KAIST-NYU AI and Digital Governance Summit" with New York University from Feb. 6-7 at NYU in New York.
The summit was organized to seek practical AI governance solutions that balance technological innovation with safety and ethical responsibility, as artificial intelligence's impact on society expands rapidly. The event combined closed-door consensus meetings with public discussions.
Sixty global AI governance leaders from academia, industry, and civil society participated. Attendees included NYU professors Matthew Liao and David Chalmers, Oxford Internet Institute Director Vicki Nash, Carnegie Mellon University professor Vincent Conitzer, Google DeepMind Chief Scientist Iason Gabriel, and former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Philip Goldberg. The second day's public discussion drew approximately 450 audience members.
The event drew attention as an "experimental consensus model" aimed at developing actionable AI governance frameworks. KAIST's Global Center for Governance, Development, Ethics, and Science (G-CODEs) and NYU's Center for Bioethics had conducted preliminary discussions since December through three working groups covering governance requirements, institutional architecture, and implementation pathways. In New York, participants produced action-oriented recommendations through intensive consensus-based discussions and voting.
According to KAIST, the governance requirements working group discussed the need for enhanced oversight and monitoring of high-risk AI systems. The institutional architecture group reviewed design principles for AI oversight bodies, referencing existing high-risk technology supervision models such as the FDA, IRB, and FAA. The implementation pathways group addressed short-term governance measures and corporate responsibility standards applicable during international regulatory gaps.
Experts from major global tech companies including Meta, Google DeepMind, IBM, Amazon, Anthropic, TikTok, and Hugging Face also attended. KAIST researchers including Vice President for International Relations Kim So-young, Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy professor Park Kyung-ryul (G-CODEs Director), and AI College Future Studies Department Chair Kim Hyung-jun shared Korea's AI governance research achievements.
KAIST President Lee Kwang-hyung stated, "The importance of governance discussions for responsible AI innovation continues to grow." He added, "KAIST will lead interdisciplinary research and policy discussions in AI governance through international partnerships."