NAIRL and Global AI Frontier Lab Host Global AI Frontiers Symposium 2026

National AI Research Lab (NAIRL) and the Global AI Frontier Lab co-hosted the Global AI Frontiers Symposium 2026 on July 3 at the Westin Seoul Parnas, under the theme “AI Beyond Intelligence: Into the Real World.” Jointly organized by NAIRL, which brings together Korea’s national AI research capabilities, and the Global AI Frontier Lab, a hub for global collaboration, this year’s edition brought industry fully into the fold, opening a venue for collaboration across academia, industry, and government following last year’s academia-focused gathering. The symposium ran from 10:00 a.m. to 5:50 p.m.

The event opened with an introductory video, welcoming and congratulatory remarks, and a group photo, with senior figures from government and academia in attendance. Yann LeCun, professor at NYU, Yejin Choi, professor at Stanford University, and Pushmeet Kohli, VP at Google DeepMind, sent video messages of congratulations to mark the occasion.

The morning session featured keynote lectures by world-leading authorities. Representing academia, Leslie Pack Kaelbling, Panasonic Professor at MIT, spoke on rational robots, examining how robots can perceive, decide, and act reliably in the unpredictable conditions of the real world rather than a controlled laboratory. Drawing on cases such as avoiding unfamiliar obstacles or responding to unexpected situations, she analyzed the limits and failures robots encounter in real environments and proposed how they might reliably become part of everyday life.

Representing industry, Noam Brown, VP of Research at OpenAI, spoke on the implications of large-scale test-time compute. He introduced recent advances in which AI, rather than producing plausible text the moment it receives a question, takes time to reason through problems as a person would, raising the prospect of AI that learns and verifies on its own to develop genuine reasoning capabilities.

The keynotes were followed by a panel discussion on “Global AI Leadership: Academia-Industry-Government Collaboration,” moderated by NAIRL Director and KAIST professor Kee-Eung Kim. Kaelbling and Brown were joined by Kyunghyun Cho, Co-Director of the Global AI Frontier Lab and professor at NYU, and Emily Black, professor at NYU, to discuss avenues for robust collaboration toward the next generation of AI.

The afternoon featured six specialized tracks running in parallel: Large Language Models and Agentic AI (Chair: Jungseul Ok, POSTECH), Multimodal AI (Chair: Changhee Lee, Korea University), AI for Science (Chair: Jong Chul Ye, KAIST), Physical AI and Embodied Intelligence (Chair: Hyunjung Shim, KAIST), AI for Life (Chair: Jinyoung Yeo, Yonsei University), and Trustworthy, Safe and Governed AI (Chair: Albert No, Yonsei University). Presenters included Woohyung Lim, Head of LG AI Research; Morita June, APAC Head of Perplexity; and Myuhng-Joo Kim, Executive Director of the Korea AI Safety Institute, along with Sung Ju Hwang, professor at KAIST and CEO of DeepAuto, Minsu Cho, professor at POSTECH, and Mengye Ren, professor at NYU, among other leading experts from Korea and abroad.

Alongside the symposium, a special exhibition titled “Completing the AI Value Chain: From Research to Life” was held. The exhibition was organized into four zones tracing AI across the entire value chain, from The Core of research to The Backbone of infrastructure, The Engine of industrial innovation, and The Experience of everyday life. In particular, an “AI ART” section presented together with Perplexity highlighted the new visual language created by human imagination and AI, casting AI as a partner in creative work.

The symposium drew key figures from global AI companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Perplexity, alongside scholars from world-renowned institutions such as France’s PRAIRIE Institute and Canada’s Vector Institute, making it a truly global venue for exchange at the frontier of AI. All sessions were conducted in English with real-time AI interpretation provided.

Ahead of the main event, the Global AI Frontier Lab Workshop was held on July 2, where researchers from Korea and the United States shared their work and discussed future directions on topics including core AI algorithms, AI trust and accountability, and AI for healthcare. The symposium was also held in connection with ICML 2026, the International Conference on Machine Learning, taking place July 6 to 11 at COEX in Seoul, adding to its significance as researchers from around the world gathered in the city.

NAIRL extends its gratitude to every speaker, partner, and participant who took part. NAIRL will continue to connect Korea’s research community with leading frontier AI institutions worldwide, fostering an ecosystem where academia’s foundational research translates into real-world industrial application.