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On the 25th at Kakao's Pangyo Agit office, Lee Sung-hye (from left), director of the KAIST Center for Gifted Education; Kim Jong-won, director of the GIST Dreaming Children AX Education and Training Center; Kim Young-deok, director of Kakao's AI Dot Center; Seok Chang-won, director of the DGIST Convergence Education Institute; and Baek Chung-gi, director of the UNIST Supercomputing Center, pose for a photo after signing a "Memorandum of Understanding for Nurturing Future AI Talent." Photo courtesy of Kakao - Seoul Economic Daily Technology News from South Korea](https://wimg.sedaily.com/news/cms/2026/06/26/news-p.v1.20260626.89c028d8501041479c7ac7da128a2bfa_P1.jpg "Kakao Partners With Four Science Universities to Nurture Youth Entrepreneurs")
On the twenty fifth at Kakao’s Pangyo Agit workplace, Lee Sung-hye (from left), director of the KAIST Center for Gifted Education; Kim Jong-won, director of the GIST Dreaming Children AX Education and Training Center; Kim Young-deok, director of Kakao’s AI Dot Center; Seok Chang-won, director of the DGIST Convergence Education Institute; and Baek Chung-gi, director of the UNIST Supercomputing Center, pose for a photograph after signing a “Memorandum of Understanding for Nurturing Future AI Talent.” Photo courtesy of Kakao
Kakao (035720) Group stated Thursday that it’s constructing a cooperation framework with Korea’s prime science and expertise universities to uncover youth unicorn entrepreneurs who will lead the nation.
To this finish, “Kakao AI Dot” signed a “Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for Nurturing Future AI Talent” on Wednesday at Kakao’s Pangyo Agit with Korea’s 4 science and expertise institutes: the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), and the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST). Kakao AI Dot is Kakao’s group for fostering regional synthetic intelligence (AI) expertise and firms.
The signing ceremony was attended by Kim Young-deok, head of the Kakao AI Dot Center; Lee Sung-hye, head of the KAIST Gifted Education Center; Kim Jong-won, head of the GIST Dreaming Children AX Education and Training Center; Seok Chang-won, dean of the DGIST Convergence Talent Education Institute; and Baek Chung-ki, head of the UNIST Supercomputing Center, who pledged shut cooperation. Center head Kim Young-deok, appointed in May, is a startup funding and assist knowledgeable who based Gmarket and served as CEO of D.CAMP on the Banks Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs and at Lotte Ventures (previously Lotte Accelerator).
Kakao signed an MOU with the 4 institutes in March this 12 months to nurture regional expertise. This settlement marks step one of substantive initiatives following that, specializing in the early discovery and assist of science prodigies on the elementary, center, and highschool ranges. The firm plans to present efficient assist by linking every institute’s specialised schooling capabilities with Kakao’s infrastructure and subject expertise applications.
“It is meaningful to be able to provide an AI education environment for regional gifted students together with the four science and technology institutes that have nurtured Korea’s science and technology talent,” Kim Young-deok, head of the Kakao AI Dot Center, stated. “We will work to discover and nurture teenage AI entrepreneurs early.”
Kakao Group plans to push for complete revitalization of the regional AI ecosystem centered on “Kakao AI Dot.” Together with the 4 institutes, it plans to pursue numerous initiatives, together with serving to not solely regional youth but in addition regional college college students and researchers begin AI companies, and establishing AX-based startup fashions that remedy points in region-specific industries.