Kakao Shares AI Ethics Policy at International Event

Kakao participated in the policy research report publication event held at the UN conference hall in Geneva, Switzerland, sharing its artificial intelligence (AI) ethics policy.

On the 14th, Kakao participated as a panelist in an event commemorating the publication of the report titled "Discussion on a Human Rights-Based Approach and Related International Norms for Trustworthy AI from the Perspective of Startups," held at the UN conference hall in Geneva, Switzerland.
[Photo by Kakao]

On the 14th, Kakao took part as a panelist in the event commemorating the publication of the report titled "Human Rights-Based Approach to Trustworthy AI from the Perspective of Startups and Discussions on Related International Norms," held at the UN conference hall in Geneva, Switzerland. The event was jointly hosted by the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations in Geneva, Seoul National University AI Policy Initiative (SAPI), and the Universal Rights Group (URG). This year, SAPI published a follow-up report on implementing a human rights-based approach to AI from the startup perspective. The report included Kakao’s case of advancing AI ethics governance.

At the event, Kakao explained its guidelines for strengthening AI ethics and efforts to improve internal awareness. Furthermore, it emphasized that reviewing services based on technology ethics, including AI, is a crucial foundation for creating safe and trustworthy services. Kakao expressed the view that systematic discussions on building governance for AI ethics are necessary, and practical efforts such as designating AI ethics departments or officers can lead to user safety and the establishment of a healthy digital ecosystem. Hajinhwa, Manager of Kakao’s Human Rights and Technology Ethics Team, explained, “Kakao’s AI ethics issues are systematically managed through the procedure of ‘risk identification → prioritization of tasks → problem improvement.’ This series of processes is closely linked to Kakao’s human rights management principles.”

As a digital company, Kakao continues to fulfill its social responsibility and efforts to strengthen AI ethics. In 2018, it announced the Algorithm Ethics Charter, becoming the first domestic company to establish an algorithm ethics code. The charter includes Kakao AI technology’s goals of pursuing human benefit and happiness, prevention of intentional discrimination, principles for learning data and collection management based on ethics, independence in algorithm management, and policies for algorithm explainability.

In 2022, Kakao became the first domestic company to establish the “Community Technology Ethics Committee,” an enterprise-wide AI ethics discussion body. The committee aims to continuously review technology ethics across the community and research ways to develop it together with society. It carries out systematic policy improvement tasks such as checking compliance with AI ethics regulations and risk assessments for Kakao community services, as well as enhancing algorithm transparency.

Lee Chaeyoung, Chairperson of Kakao Community Technology Ethics Committee, stated, “Kakao will responsibly take the lead in complying with technology ethics, strive to develop AI ethics inspection tools, and work to establish concrete implementation plans.”