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Taming AI: Engineering, Ethics, and Policy
(Professor Lee, Professor Koene, Professor Walsh, and Professor Ema (from left))
Can AI-powered robotics could be adequate companions for humans? Will the good faith of users and developers work for helping AI-powered robots become the new tribe of the digital future?
AI’s efficiency is creating new socio-economic opportunities in the global market. Despite the opportunities, challenges still remain. It is said that efficiency-enforcing algorithms through deep learning will take an eventual toll on human dignity and safety, bringing out the disastrous fiascos featured in the Terminator movies.
A research group at the Korean Flagship AI Project for Emotional Digital Companionship at KAIST Institute for AI (KI4AI) and the Fourth Industrial Intelligence Center at KAIST Institute co-hosted a seminar, “Taming AI: Engineering, Ethics, and Policy” last week to discuss ways to better employ AI technologies in ways that upholds human values.
The KI4AI has been conducting this flagship project from the end of 2016 with the support of the Ministry of Science and ICT.
The seminar brought together three speakers from Australia, Japan, and the UK to better fathom the implications of the new technology emergence from the ethical perspectives of engineering and discuss policymaking for the responsible usage of technology.
Professor Toby Walsh, an anti-autonomous weapon activist from New South Wales University in Australia continued to argue the possible risk that AI poses to malfunction. He said that an independent ethics committee or group usually monitors academic institutions’ research activities in order to avoid any possible mishaps.
However, he said there is no independent group or committee monitoring the nature of corporations’ engagement of such technologies, while its possible threats against humanity are alleged to be growing. He mentioned that Google’s and Amazon’s information collecting also pose a potent threat. He said that ethical standards similar to academic research integrity should be established to avoid the possible restricting of the dignity of humans and mass destruction. He hoped that KAIST and Google would play a leading role in establishing an international norm toward this compelling issue.
Professor Arisa Ema from the University of Tokyo provided very compelling arguments for thinking about the duplicity of technology and how technology should serve the public interest without any bias against gender, race, and social stratum. She pointed out the information dominated by several Western corporations like Google. She said that such algorithms for deep learning of data provided by several Western corporations will create very biased information, only applicable to limited races and classes.
Meanwhile, Professor Ansgar Koene from the University of Nottingham presented the IEEE’s global initiative on the ethics of autonomous and intelligence systems. He shared the cases of industry standards and ethically-aligned designs made by the IEEE Standards Association. He said more than 250 global cross-disciplinary thought leaders from around the world joined to develop ethical guidelines called Ethically Aligned Design (EAD) V2. EAD V2 includes methodologies to guide ethical research and design, embedding values into autonomous intelligence systems among others. For the next step beyond EAD V2, the association is now working for IEEE P70xx Standards Projects, detailing more technical approaches.
Professor Soo Young Lee at KAIST argued that the eventual goal of complete AI is to have human-like emotions, calling it a new paradigm for the relationship between humans and AI-robots. According to Professor Lee, AI-powered robots will serve as a good companion for humans. “Especially in aging societies affecting the globe, this will be a very viable and practical option,” he said.
He pointed out, “Kids learn from parents’ morality and social behavior. Users should have AI-robots learn morality as well. Their relationships should be based on good faith and trust, no longer that of master and slave. He said that liability issues for any mishap will need to be discussed further, but basically each user and developer should have their own responsibility when dealing with these issues.
2018.06.26 View 9653 -
KAIST Team Reaching Out with Appropriate Technology
(The gold prize winning team of KATT)
The KAIST Appropriate Technology Team (KATT) consisting of international students at KAIST won the gold and silver prizes at ‘The 10th Creative Design Competition for the Other 90 Percent.’
More than 218 students from 50 teams nationwide participated in the competition hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT last month.
The competition was created to discover appropriate technology and sustainable design items to enhance the quality of life for those with no or few accessible technologies.
A team led by Juan Luis Gonzalez Bello, graduate student from the School of Electrical Engineering received the gold prize for presenting a prosthetic arm. Their artificial arm was highly recognized for its affordability and good manageability. The team said that it cost less than 10 US dollars to construct from materials available in underprivileged regions and was easy to assemble.
Sophomore Hutomo Calvin from the Department of Materials Science & Engineering also worked on the prosthetic arm project with freshmen Bella Godiva, Stephanie Tan, and Koptieuov Yearbola.
Alexandra Tran, senior from the School of Electrical Engineering led the silver prize winning team. Her team developed a portable weather monitor, ‘Breathe Easy’. She worked with Alisher Tortay, senior from the School of Computing, Ashar Alam, senior from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Bereket Eshete, junior from the School of Computing, and Marthens Hakzimana, sophomore from the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
This weather monitor is a low-cost but efficient air quality monitor. The team said it just cost less than seven US dollars to construct the monitor.KAIST students have now won the gold prize for two consecutive years.
2018.06.19 View 12426 -
Czech Technology Mission with KAIST
Members of the Czech research community visited KAIST to discuss medium to long-term cooperation with KAIST. This visit was hosted by the Fourth Industrial Revolution Intelligence Center (FIRIC).
The community is comprised of people from Czech enterprises and academic institutes that are leading core technologies for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the fields of AI, robotics, and biotechnology. They had a chance to meet KAIST professors and visit research labs.
Professor Il-Doo Kim from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Professor Seongsu Kim from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Professor Hyun Uk Kim from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering attended the meeting, which took place in the Mechatronics, Systems, and Control Lab under the Vice President for Planning and Budget Soo Hyun Kim and Professor Kyung Soo Kim from the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Professor Petr Novák from the Technical University of Ostrava said, “It was a meaningful meeting to help understand research trends on industrial robots in Korea.” Professor So Young Kim from FIRIC said, “The Czech research community is strong in basic research where KAIST has outstanding source technology. I hope this visit will open up a path for medium to long-term cooperation on sharing research and technology know-how between the Czech research community and KAIST.”
2018.06.07 View 7389 -
The Center for Anthropocene Studies (CAS) Opens
KAIST will start Anthropocene research, a convergence field of study, to address issues related to the commencement of human activities that have had scientific, industrial, and economic impacts on the Earth’s ecosystem. The National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea endorsed the KAIST Center for Anthropocene Studies as its Convergence Research Center project.
Anthropocene refers to a new geological age in which various polluting materials that humans have made during the post-industrial revolution era have made a significant impact on the Earth and the lives of humankind. The studies expand the diverse socio-economic and environmental sectors for responding to climate change, natural disasters, ecological destruction, the polarization of the inequality and wealth, and many others.
The KAIST research group at the center, in collaboration with the Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy, the Graduate School of Culture Technology, the School of Humanities & Social Sciences, the Department of Industrial Design, the School of Electrical Engineering, the Satellite Technology Research Center (SaRTec), and the KAIST Initiative for Disaster Studies will conduct multidisciplinary research to address intriguing challenges with complex but creative approaches incorporating the fields of engineering, socioeconomics, and art.
The group will investigate topics such as▲ surface and marine changes to the Earth by applying satellite data ▲disaster prediction and governance system building through AI modeling ▲sustainable housing, transportation, and lifestyles ▲ engineering and artistic approaches for envisioning a new future for humankind and the Earth.
Professor Buhm Soon Park, who is in charge of the center, said, “This pioneering research work will inspire the re-creation of a new paradigm of convergence studies in science, engineering, humanities, and social science. We will contribute to making the world better by designing new technologies and social policies.
2018.06.05 View 13148 -
Professor Hee-Sung Park Named Scientist of May
(Professor Hee-Sung Park)
Professor Hee-Sung Park from the Department of Chemistry was named ‘Scientist of May’ sponsored by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation of Korea. Professor Park was honored in recognition of his developing a tool to engineer designer proteins via diverse chemical modifications. This approach provides a novel platform for investigating numerous diseases such as cancer and dementia.
His research focuses on the production of synthetic proteins and the generation of diverse protein functions as well as the designing and engineering of new translation machinery for genetic code expansion, and the application of synthetic biology techniques for basic cell biology and applied medical science.
Post-translational modifications (PTMs) are constantly taking place during or after protein biosynthesis. PTMs play a vital role in expanding protein functional diversity and, as a result, critically affect numerous biological processes. Abnormal PTMs have been known to trigger various diseases including cancer and dementia. Therefore, this technology enables proteins to reproduce with specific modifications at selected residues and will significantly help establish experimental strategies to investigate fundamental biological mechanisms including the development of targeted cancer therapies.
Professor Park also received 10 million KRW in prize money.
2018.05.04 View 11215 -
Undergrad's Paper Chosen as the Cover Article in Soft Matter
(from left: Research Professor KyuHan Kim and Undergrad Student Subeen Kim)
A KAIST undergraduate student, Subeen Kim, had his paper chosen as the cover article in an international journal during his senior year.
There have been an increasing number of undergraduate students who were published as the first author because the KAIST Undergraduate Research Participation program allows more active research participation by undergraduate students.
Through URP, Kim successfully published his paper in the internationally-renowned journal, Soft Matter, which is published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, and it was chosen as the cover article of that journal in February 2018.
This publication means a lot to him because he designed the cover image himself, based on his imagination and observations.
His research is about controllable one-step double emulsion formation. Double emulsion is a system in which dispersed droplets contain additional immiscible liquid droplets.
Having great retention ability, double emulsion has been used in various applications in the food industry, in cosmetics, and for drug delivery. Nevertheless, two-step emulsification is a conventional approach to produce double emulsions that typically leads to partial destabilization of the emulsion formed during the initial stage. Hence, it does not ensure the stability of a double emulsion. On the other hand, a microfluidic approach with various flow-focusing techniques has been developed, but it has low production efficiency and thus limited industrial applications.
Kim’s results came from the process of phase inversion to solve this problem. He identified the instant formation of double emulsions during the process of phase inversion. Based on this finding, he proposed criteria to achieve high stability of double emulsion.
Through constant research, he developed a quite general method using a combination of an oil soluble poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) and hydrophobic silica nanoparticle (HDK H18). This new method enables one-step and stable production of double emersions in a stable manner. It also allows control of the number and the volume of inner oil droplets inside the outer water droplets by adjusting PMMA and HDK H18.
Kim enrolled at KAIST as a KAIST Presidential Fellowship and Presidential Science Scholarship in 2014. While studying both chemical and biomolecular engineering and chemistry he has been developing his hypothesis and conducting research.
He was able to begin conducting research because he has taken part in URP projects twice. In his sophomore year, he studied the formation of high internal phase double emulsions. After one year, he conducted research to produce superabsorbent resins, which are the base material for diapers, by using colloid particles. Using partial research outcomes, he published his paper in Nature Communications as a second author.
Kim said, “Double majoring the chemical and biomolecular engineering and chemistry has helped me producing this outcome. I hope that this research contributes to commercializing double emulsions. I will continue to identify accurate principles to produce chemicals that can be controlled exquisitely.”
Figure 1. The cover article of Soft Matter
2018.05.03 View 11731 -
KAIST Develops IoT Platform for Food Safety
A research team led by the KAIST Auto-ID Labs developed a GS1 international standard-based IoTs infrastructure platform dubbed Oliot (Open Language of Internet of Things). This platform will be applied to Wanju Local Food, the nation’s largest cooperative, and will be in operation from April 5.
A total of eleven organizations participated in the development of Oliot, with KAIST as the center. This consortium is based on the GS1 international standard-based Oliot platform, which allows collecting and sharing data along the entire process of agrifood from production to processing, distribution, and consumption. It aims at increasing farm incomes and establishing a global ecosystem of domestic agriculture and stockbreeding that provides safe food.
Wanju Local Food is now the world’s first local food co-op with a traceability system from the initial stage of production planning to end sales based on GS1 international standards, which will ensure food safety.
KAIST has been sharing Oliot data in order to apply it to industries around the world. As of April 2018, approximately 900 enterprises and developers from more than 100 countries have downloaded it.
Professor Daeyoung Kim from the School of Computing, who is also Research Director of Auto-ID Labs said, “We are planning to disseminate Oliot to local food cooperatives throughout the nation. We will also cooperate with other countries, like China, Holland, and Hong Kong to create a better ecosystem for the global food industry.
“We are currently collaborating with related business to converge Oliot with AI or blockchain technology that can be applied to various services, such as healthcare and smart factories. Its tangible outcome will be revealed soon,” he added.
Auto-ID Labs are a global research consortium of six academic institutions that research and develop new technologies for advancing global commerce, partnering with GS1 (Global Standard 1), a non-profit organization that established standards for global commerce such as introducing barcodes to the retail industry. The Auto-ID Labs include MIT, University of Cambridge, Keio University, Fudan University, ETH Zurich/University of St. Gallen, and KAIST.
The consortium was supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT as well as the Institute for Information and Communications Technology Promotion for three years from 2015.
The launching of Oliot at Wanju Local Food will be held on April 5.
2018.04.03 View 10143 -
KAIST Unveils Vision 2031, a Blueprint for KAIST's Future
(Participants at the Vision 2031 Declaration Ceremony pose after the ceremony on March 20.)
KAIST presented a blueprint for KAIST’s future, “Vision 2031” looking toward its 60th anniversary. The strategic development plan for a “Global Value-Creative Leading University” aims at being one of the top universities in the world by the year 2031.
Unveiling its 2031 Vision, KAIST President Sung-Chul Shin presented the three-stage, five-year action plan during a ceremony held on March 20.
He stressed that innovation in the five pillars of education, research, technology commercialization, globalization, and future strategy will further advance the excellence of KAIST, to help it become a trailblazer in Korea and beyond.
President Shin said that Vision 2031 holds a special meaning, as the full support of the KAIST community was garnered to complete this shared vision for KAIST.
Approximately 140 members of the Vision Committee participated in the brainstorming process over the past ten months for reaching this vision. The committee went through consensus building procedures of public hearings engaging all of the stakeholders on campus as well as outside experts. The committee published “Vision 2031: KAIST’s Future Report” this month, detailing the action plan of innovation strategies for reaching its new vision as well as an expanded budget funding plan to secure 2 trillion KRW by 2031, up from the current 860 billion KRW.
First, in education, KAIST will foster creative leaders who will translate the knowledge created by science and technology into social values. In research, KAIST will conduct research projects to address both national and global challenges. KAIST will pursue becoming an entrepreneurial university that will enrich its technological value. In globalization innovation, KAIST will move forward to serve as a world bridge. Lastly, KAIST will steer toward the ‘What’ (problem definition) over the ‘How’ (problem solving) for addressing challenges in pursuing future strategy innovation.
The ceremony was held in Chung Kunmo Hall, in the newly opened the Academic Cultural Complex, with an attendance of more than 300 distinguished guests including global leaders in higher education, government, and industry, as well as from KAIST community.
Noted participants from abroad included KAIST President’s Advisory Council members such as Former President of ETH Zurich Rlaph Eichler, President of HKUST Tony Chan, President-elect Kazuya Masu of the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Former President of the National University of Singapore Tan Chorh Chuan, Nobel laureate Professor Kurt Wuthrich of the Scripps Research Institute, and Professor Klaus von Klitzing from the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research. Former KAIST Presidents including Dr. Nam-Pyo Suh, Chairman of JoongAng Holdings Seok-hyun Hong, Elsevier Chairman Youngsuk Chi, KISWE Mobile Executive Chairman Jeong H. Kim also attended the ceremony.
In honor of the Vision 2031 declaration, KAIST is hosting 25 events during Vision Week from March 19 to 23 across the campus including academic forums, distinguished lectures, exhibits, and a coding challenge, among others. The opening of the Academic Cultural Center, an iconic building accommodating the new library, Cultural Building, and Vision Hall, launched Vision Week on Monday, March 19.
KAIST also dedicated Chung Kunmo Hall in the Academic Cultural Complex, a 300-seat capacity multi-purpose hall in honor of Professor Keun-Mo Chung, who played an instrumental role in founding KAIST in 1971.
Professor Chung submitted the proposal to US Aid to establish KAIST in 1969. US Aid asked the vice-president of Stanford University at the time, Frederick Terman, to conduct a feasibility study on the establishment of KAIST. The Terman Report, approving the founding of KAIST, was published in 1970 and KAIST was founded the next year. Following the dedication of Terman Hall in 2004, KAIST has now inducted its two founding figures.
“We had the guidebook of the Terman Report back then. We faithfully accomplished the initial mission and goals the Terman Report contained. At this critical juncture of the new global environment, we need to establish a new vision to continue to develop. As much as the Terman Report drove us to our current success, I hope the Vision 2031 KAIST Future Report will advance KAIST to its new chapter,” President Shin said.
Stressing that the ideal KAISTian is defined by the 3C spirit: Challenge, Creativity, and Caring, President Shin said, “Members of KAIST are expected to embrace challenges, generate creative ideas, and care for others. By recommitting to the five innovation strategies equipped with the KAIST spirit, KAIST will emerge as one of the top universities of science and technology by the year 2031 and contribute to the happiness and prosperity of humankind. I hope KAIST will be a great source of pride for Koreans and lay the foundation for Korea to take the lead in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”
2018.03.20 View 7804 -
Professor Emeritus Jung Ki Park Won the IBA Technology Award 2018
(Professor Emeritus Jung Ki Park)
Professor Emeritus Jung Ki Park from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering received the IBA Technology Award from the International Battery Association (IBA).
IBA 2018 was held from March 11 to 16 on Jeju Island, which was the first time it was hosted in Korea. The conference was an excellent opportunity to let the world know the level of the Korean rechargeable battery industry and its technology.
Professor Park delivered his keynote speech titled Advances in Lithium Batteries in Korea at the conference and received the IBA Technology Award as the first Korean recipient.
Professor Park is a world-renowned scholar who was a groundbreaker in the rechargeable battery industry. He was recognized by the IBA Award Committee for his contributions carrying out research and development, fostering competent people, and enhancing the lithium rechargeable battery industry in Korea over the last 30 years.
Professor Park said, “It is my great honor to receive this award, which is the best international award in the field of rechargeable batteries. I would like to share this with my colleagues and students. As competition in the rechargeable industry intensifies, systemic cooperation among industries, academia, and government is needed for the continued development of the battery industry in Korea.
2018.03.19 View 8130 -
The 8th KINC Fusion Research Awardees
The KAIST Institute for NanoCentury held the 8th KINC Fusion Research Award in order to encourage professors’ convergence studies and instill students’ willingness to research. The award ceremony took place in the KI Building at KAIST on March 13.
The KINC Fusion Research Award selects the most outstanding convergence studies among research undertaken last year, and awards researchers who participated in that research.
The 8th KINC Fusion Research Award went to Professor Yoon Sung Nam from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Professor Inkyu Park from the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Their research reported the spontaneous self-biomineralization of palladium (Pd) ions on a filamentous virus to form ligand-free Pd nanowires without reducing reagents or using additional surface stabilizers (Title: Virus-Templated Self-Mineralization of Ligand-Free Colloidal Palladium Nanostructures for High Surface Activity and Stability, Advanced Functional Materials (2017)).
Professor Hee-Tae Jung, the Director of KAIST Institute for the NanoCentury and the host of the KINC Fusion Research Award said, “Convergence will be the crucial keyword that will lead to revolutionary change. Hence, the importance of convergence study should be improved. We will put every effort into creating a research environment for increasing convergence study.
The KAIST Institute for the NanoCentury was established in June 2006 under the KAIST Institute with a mission of creating convergence study by tearing down boarders among departments and carrying out interdisciplinary joint research. Currently, approximately 90 professors from 14 departments participate the institute. It aims to become a hub of university institutes for nano-fusion research.
2018.03.19 View 13567 -
Scientist of March, Professor Hee-Seung Lee
(Professor Hee-Seung Lee)
Professor Hee-Seung Lee from the Department of Chemistry at KAIST received the ‘Science and Technology Award of the Month’ awarded by the Ministry of ICT and Science, and the National Research Foundation of Korea for March 2018.
Professor Lee has been recognized for successfully producing peptide-based molecular machines, which used to be made of metals.
The methodology can be translated into magnetotactic behavior at the macroscopic scale, which is reminiscent of magnetosomes in magnetotactic bacteria.
The team employed foldectures, self-assembled molecular architectures of β-peptide foldamers, to develop the peptide-based molecular machines that uniformly align with respect to an applied static magnetic field.
Professor Lee said, “Molecular machines are widely used in the field of medical engineering or material science; however, there were limitations for developing the machines using magnetic fields. By developing peptide-based molecular machines, we were able to develop body-friendly molecular machines.”
Every month, the Ministry of ICT and Science and the National Research Foundation of Korea award a cash prize worth 10,000,000 KRW to a scientist who has contributed to science and technology with outstanding research and development performance.
2018.03.15 View 10231 -
Blockchain and Cryptocurrency: Between Reality and Virtuality
A workshop on blockchain and cryptocurrency, one of the 4th Industrial Revolution Workshop Series, was held at the KAIST main campus on March 7.
Experts from industry, academia, and research gathered and shared their opinions about blockchain technology, which is currently gaining huge attention along with cryptocurrency.
During the workshop, four KAIST professors and four experts from institutes and business examined the scope on the possibility of blockchain, technology for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Moreover, they discussed a variety of issues including mining, wallets, cryptocurrency, information security, smart contracts, and ICOs.
In a previous blockchain tutorial, Professor Yongdae Kim from the School of Electrical Engineering at KAIST and Professor Hyoungshick Kim from Sungkyunkwan University opened up a blockchain tutorial which provided a technical understanding of blockchain, such as the birth of cryptocurrency, algorithm design, and exchange methods.
Professor Jungho Kim, who is in charge of this event, said, “This workshop will broaden the understanding of blockchain, which can provide a foundation for a national growth engine.”
2018.03.07 View 8418