Chey Tae-won: "AI, a Powerful Problem-Solver for Social Issues"... Korea Social Value Festa Opens

[Financial News] The Social Value Festa, Korea's largest social value platform bringing together the government, businesses, social enterprises, civil society and international organizations to develop social solutions, was held on the 21st. KCCI Chairman Chey Tae-won emphasized, "AI (artificial intelligence) can be a powerful problem-solver capable of dramatically reducing social costs."
At the Social Value Festa hosted by KCCI at COEX in Seoul's Gangnam District, Chey Tae-won said in his opening remarks, "It has become a very important issue today for us to use AI for social problems and reduce the costs to society."
Chey said, "We can certainly list problems such as an aging population, the need for care and climate change," adding, "But that does not mean I think the costs of these problems will decrease."
He continued, "At a time when it is difficult even to address climate issues or aging one at a time, we do not really know where to tackle them or how much to address," and suggested, "I think we need to make use of AI for this."
However, Chey cautioned, "Simply using AI is not enough. It would be good if we could apply AI to social problems as quickly as possible, but that is not easy," adding, "Ultimately, people have to do all of this, so AI cannot solve everything on its own."
Emphasizing the role of people, Chey added, "AI tells us what a phenomenon looks like, but people are the ones who address the real problem behind it," and elaborated, "As we enter the AI era, we need to consider how we can open up new opportunities centered on people."
The biggest feature of this year's Festa, now in its third year, is its focus on execution. Rather than stopping at recognizing social problems or sharing discussions, it emphasizes presenting an execution-oriented collaboration model centered on the questions of "who will create real impact, with whom, and using what capital and technology."
The scale and diversity of participants also reached record levels. The number of participating organizations rose from 344 last year to around 400, while attendance is expected to reach around 15,000 or more visitors.
Businesses contribute technological and business capabilities; the government and public institutions, policies and systems; social enterprises and civil society, on-the-ground experience and ideas; financial institutions and foundations, capital; and international organizations and academia, global experience and expertise. Together, they connect their different resources and capabilities to find shared solutions.
At the ensuing main session, the Leaders Summit, around 150 leaders from business, government, finance, foundations and the social economy gathered to discuss in depth the question, "How can capital expand social value?"
In his remarks at the Leaders Summit, Chey said, "It would be a mistake to think of capital as money alone," adding, "Social capital is also capital now, and I believe that statistics generated using AI, as well as whether we have an environment in which AI can be used properly, are forms of AI capital."
Chey urged, "As we talk about capital, we need to examine more closely how we can use our social capital to solve social problems and expand the capital available for solving them," adding, "We need to consider how we can connect the different forms of capital already present in each sector more efficiently and effectively to solve social problems."

[email protected] Kim Hak-jae Reporter