Researchers within NAIRL Network Announce 31 Papers at ICML 2026

Researchers affiliated with the National AI Research Lab (NAIRL) presented a total of 31 accepted papers at the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML 2026), held at COEX in Seoul beginning July 5.

ICML stands alongside NeurIPS and ICLR as one of the world’s three premier machine learning conferences. This year carried particular significance: with the conference hosted in Seoul, NAIRL researchers welcomed the global AI research community on home ground, demonstrating the strength of Korea’s AI research firsthand.

A total of 19 Principal Investigators (PIs) from across the NAIRL network and over 40 first-author student researchers contributed to the program, covering a broad research agenda spanning fundamental machine learning theory, generative models, reinforcement learning, and AI safety.

The contributions across participating institutions were more evenly distributed than ever. KAIST recorded the largest single-institution output with 13 papers led by 7 PIs, followed closely by Yonsei University with 11 papers from 5 PIs. POSTECH contributed 5 papers from 5 PIs, and Korea University presented 2 papers from 2 PIs, completing the consortium’s collective showing.

Notably, this year’s results extended beyond technical contributions into the broader scholarly discourse. Two papers were accepted to the ICML Position track, addressing the overuse of the term ‘machine unlearning’ and the need to prepare for ‘AI lock-in,’ respectively. These works demonstrate that NAIRL researchers are contributing not only to AI technology development but also to shaping the direction of the global AI research community.

This outcome reflects the ‘One Team’ framework that the four leading universities have built together over time. Researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Yonsei University, Korea University, and the Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) have collaborated across institutional boundaries, accumulating research results across the frontier of AI.

Building on this achievement of welcoming the world’s premier machine learning conference to Seoul, NAIRL will further strengthen its efforts toward the Global Open Innovation Ecosystem it envisions. NAIRL also extends its sincere appreciation to every professor and student researcher who contributed to this collective achievement.