Participants celebrate a business agreement during the opening ceremony of the 2022 Seoul Big Data Forum at City Hall, Nov. 28, 2022. Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government

The 2023 Seoul Big Data Forum is set to take place from Thursday to Friday and will focus on the concept of a sustainable future city through the exploration of solutions to urban challenges by using big data and cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).

This annual international event is jointly hosted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the University of Seoul, the Seoul Institute and the Seoul Digital Foundation. In particular, Statistics Korea joins as a special co-organizer for this year's forum.

Under the theme of "Seoul Innovation Vision powered by Big Data and AI," the forum will feature insights from both domestic and international experts.

The poster for the 2023 Seoul Big Data Forum / Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government

Illia Polosukhin, acclaimed author of "Attention is All You Need," a book credited with innovating large language models (LLM), will deliver a keynote speech, shedding light on the evolution of AI and big data technology.

The keynote session, preceding four main sessions, will include a presentation by Weijie Su, an associate professor of statistics and data science at the University of Pennsylvania, addressing solutions for the secure utilization of data by public institutions. Kim Yoo-won, CEO of Naver Cloud, will also present a direction and vision for the sustainable development of big data and AI technologies.

The two-day forum comprises four sessions, all centered around the common theme of "administrative innovation using big data and AI."

Discussions will encompass the history of e-government, the latest applications of big data and artificial intelligence in administrative services, strategies for implementing smart cities and future considerations around social technology and ethics, according to a city official.

"We aimed to showcase cases of urban administrative innovation through the use of big data and artificial intelligence technology through the forum. Moreover, we sought to create a platform for sharing diverse insights, spanning from technological applications to ethical considerations," stated Jeon Jong-june, a professor of statistics at the University of Seoul.

"Through the 2023 Seoul Big Data Forum, the city will enhance the quality of life for its citizens through the scientific administration enabled by new digital technologies," said Kim Jin-man, an officer from the digital policy bureau at the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

The forum, welcoming participants interested in big data, AI, and smart cities, offers advance registration until Wednesday at seoulbigdataforum.kr. The content will be provided in both Korean and English.

For citizens unable to attend in person, the event will be livestreamed on the forum's official YouTube channel, parallel to the offline proceedings.