Hyundai Motor hires two AI experts to strengthen foothold in future mobility

Hyundai Motor Group has hired two artificial intelligence experts as the company aims to secure its position in the future mobility sector, including self-driving cars.

The automotive group, including Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp., said on Sept. 24 that it has recruited Tomaso A. Poggio and Daniela L. Rus, professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as the group’s technical advisers.

As Hyundai’s AI technology advisory group members, they will offer outside expert counseling on the group’s overall investment, research and development of artificial intelligence projects.

The advisory group is tasked with consulting on Hyundai’s planning of new AI-based technology strategies and seeking business opportunities.

Hyundai Motor is aiming to transform from an automotive manufacturer to a "smart mobility solution provider" by engaging in various projects that involve AI technology and autonomous driving.

Hyundai said the recruitment of prominent AI professionals is expected to help the company better compete in future-vehicle development.

“It is highly meaningful to work with world-leading minds in artificial intelligence and explore ways to incorporate AI technology in the mobility industry,” said Kim Jeong-hee, a Hyundai Motor vice president. “We will continue to cooperate with diverse global institutions to become a front-runner in the future mobility industry,”

Currently, Poggio is MIT’s Eugene McDermott professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and the director of the university’s Center for Brains, Minds and Machines.

He is considered one of the world's most distinguished scholars in neural network research and AI applications. He has been working on the development and analysis of human visual systems into theoretical models and won the Society for Neuroscience Swartz Prize for theoretical and computational neuroscience.

Rus is MIT’s Andrew and Erna Viterbi professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Also, she is the director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. She has been researching various forms of robotics and autonomous driving developments with a view on improving daily life.

In recognition of her research achievements, she was selected as the winner of the MacArthur Fellowship awarded by the MacArthur Foundation in the US and was appointed as a member of the US Presidential Advisory Committee on Science and Technology in April of this year.

Write to Il-Gue Kim at Black0419@hankyung.com
Edited by In-Soo Nam