Experts define goal of AI tech development as cooperation with humans

Renowned artificial intelligence (AI) scholar Masashi Sugiyama said his research goal is to develop AI that can work and learn alongside people.

Sugiyama was speaking at the "Korea-Japan AI Research Trend and Startup Business Ecosystem” webinar, part of the AI Future Forum (AIFF) held last week. 

The University of Tokyo researcher explained that in Japan, such research is centered around RIKEN, a century-old national research and development institute. The name means the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research.

“Humans cannot conduct innovation in the medical sector or prepare for natural disasters in the most perfect manner but that does not mean these important tasks must be left to artificial intelligence,” Sugiyama said. “We must learn to collaborate with AI.”

The webinar, jointly hosted by AIFF and the Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies, featured a mix of Korean and Japanese scholars.

Choi Jae-sik, CEO of startup INEEJI Corp. introduced a case whereby AI and humans worked together to achieve optimal results. 

One of INEEJI’s products, called an Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) AI, calculates and predicts the amount of electricity needed to melt steel scraps. The company claims that AI reduced the temperature control error rate by 25% at a POSCO blast furnace. 

“AI analyzes the on-site data while humans are on standby to deal with any unexpected situations.” 

Nako Sung, Executive Officer of Naver Corp.’s CLOVA AI, said that hyperscale AI is already embedded into our daily lives. 

Naver successfully incorporated hyperscale AI into its CareCall service, through which AI communicates with the elderly living alone.

“Some of our users have told us they are thankful to not feel alone,” Sung said. “We added a function that lets the CareCall system remember previous conversations to allow for more natural interactions with its users.”

Write to Joo-Wan Kim at kjwan@hankyung.com
Jee Abbey Lee edited this article.