S. Korean president, Meta CEO Zuckerberg discuss cooperation on AI

South Korean President, Yoon Suk Yeol and Meta Platforms CEO, Mark Zuckerberg met in Seoul on Thursday, 29 February and discussed ways to expand cooperation in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Extended Reality (XR) sectors, a presidential official said.

Zuckerberg was in Seoul on a three-day visit, during which he met with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, LG Electronics CEO Cho Joo-wan and other businesspeople to discuss collaborations in the cutting-edge industries, Yonhap news agency reported.

During their meeting at the presidential office, Yoon and Zuckerberg discussed their visions for an open AI digital ecosystem and ways to strengthen cooperation between Meta and South Korean companies, as well as the need for Meta, as a global platform, to play an active role in building a trustworthy digital society, Sung Tae-yoon, Director of national policy at the presidential office, said during a Press briefing.

"The President stressed that the Republic of Korea, with its diverse portfolio of smart electronics, wearable devices and smart cars, can become an outstanding platform to apply Meta's AI," Sung said, referring to South Korea by its formal name.

"The President said the South Korean industry is ready to actively support what Meta has imagined and designed," Sung said.

Meanwhile, Yoon asked Meta and other big tech platform companies to pay special attention to the threat posed by a growing volume of fake news and fabricated material exploiting AI in an election year in many countries around the world.

Zuckerberg explained Meta's efforts to prevent election fraud, such as by placing watermarks or labels on videos to mark whether they are AI-generated, the official said.